WASH & BEWARE ON SI
SUV smashes laundry, injuring customers
An elderly man accidentally threw his SUV into reverse and rammed into a Staten Island laundry on Sunday morning — smashing through the glass storefront and pinning six people against a back wall.
Surveillance video shows the 74year-old driver plowing into the Tottenville store just after 8 a.m. when he hit the gas while going in the wrong direction, police said.
“I saw this car going backward and [it] didn’t stop, and he went right through the Laundromat,” one witness said. “A young lady with her grandfather and her mother — they got pinned on the dryers.”
Videos shows the Ford SUV hopping the curb before bursting inside. The driver apparently did not hit the brakes.
One of the injured, Cristina Sanchez, told her sister that she desperately tried to get away.
“She told me that she heard a big, strong noise,” Cristina’s sister, Marrsela Sanchez, told The Post.
“When she looked back, she saw the car coming fast, then it ran over her. She said she didn’t have time to run,” she said.
Another video from the Laundromat shows the SUV as it barrels into the store, splintering tables and bulldozing the patrons into the back wall of the store.
“I’m very sad right now,” said Cristina’s husband, Roberto Vidalas. “We have three kids that she cares for and it’s going to take a long time for her to recover.”
The family said they were still trying to find answers in the wake of the incident.
“She has scratches and bruises all over her body. She is in a lot of pain,” Vidalas said.
“We just want to find out what happened. No one came to speak to us,” he said.
Two others were taken to Staten Island University Hospital North and listed in serious condition.
The other three, including the driver, were also at the hospital in stable condition.
It was not clear Sunday evening whether the driver would be charged in the frightening incident.
The 8 a.m. tragedy could have been even worse as the Laundromat sits next to a popular Italian grocery store in the Tottenville Commons strip mall.
“It’s a good thing nobody was on the sidewalk,” one shopper said a few hours after the incident occurred.