TRUCKER CHAOS

Rams 10th Ave. cars, brawls with Bravest

An unhinged and possibly drugged driver injured nine people — four seriously — when he slammed a box truck into several cars in Hell’s Kitchen and then tried to steal a firetruck, according to officials.

The driver, who has not been identified, was driving a large Enterprise rental truck north on 10th Avenue around 1:30 p.m. when he began his path of destruction, smacking into seven vehicles between 42nd and 44th streets, police said.

The trucker ditched his banged-up ride just north of 43rd Street before blathering that someone was after him, according to Bill Walker, 53, who saw the chaos unfold as he was catching the Jets game at the Lansdowne Road bar across the street.

“He was in a manic state. He jumped out of the truck screaming, ‘Help me, help me, he’s chasing me!’ ” Walker told The Post.

Moments later, a man in a black Mercedes-Benz pulled up, saying the truck driver had hit his car and several other vehicles.

Walker grabbed the manic driver to keep him from fleeing — and to stop him from brawling with the Mercedes owner in the middle of the street, he said.

“I had to keep them both apart until a bunch of firemen intervened,” Walker said. “I held him until the fireman took him off my hands. Then he started mixing it up with the fireman pretty good.”

The truck driver climbed into a fire engine and tried to swat off pursuing firefighters, video of the melee shows.

Footage shows the man bracing himself on the firetruck’s door as he rocks back and forth. Moments later, he disappears inside the truck as a half-dozen firefighters scramble in after him, eventually yanking him out of the driver’s seat.

All told, nine people were hospitalized — including the truck driver and a firefighter, fire offi- cials said. Five had minor injuries and four were listed as serious. None was a pedestrian, cops said.

Police said the incident was not terror-related, and they believe the truck driver was on drugs. He was being held for observation at Bellevue Hospital.

The chaotic incident comes a few months after Navy veteran Richard Rojas, 26, plowed his Honda Accord for several blocks down a sidewalk of Seventh Avenue in nearby Times Square.

Rojas, who pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder and assault charges, told cops he was high on PCP and marijuana during the May 18 attack.

SMASHED: This truck damaged seven vehicles and injured nine people along a threeblock swath of 10th Avenue before the possibly drugged-up driver hopped out and climbed into the driver’s seat of a firetruck (below) as several firefighters tried to pull...