SMASH VS. AUX POLICE
Crash sends car into woman on sidewalk
An NYPD auxiliary police car racing to an emergency collided with a van, sending the car crashing onto a Queens sidewalk — and into a pedestrian, harrowing video footage shows.
The marked car is seen racing through a red light (1, left) along Cypress Avenue in Ridgewood at around 5:05 p.m. Friday, turret lights flashing and siren blaring, when a white van zipping along Harman Street T-bones it in the intersection.
The car’s momentum keeps it going down Cypress Avenue (2, left), skidding at a sharp angle as the driver hits the brakes until it slams into a parked car, and is then redirected up onto the sidewalk.
A dash camera running inside the parked car captured the hair-raising scene as the careening squad car rammed grille-first into a female pedestrian, throwing her to the ground.
At least two rattled auxiliary officers are seen emerging from the banged-up car in the moments after the crash (3, left).
One of the volunteer lawmen is seen running to the passenger-side door as another speaks into his radio.
The woman, whose identity was not immedi-atelty disclosed, was rushed to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn with nonlife-threatening injuries, according to FDNY officials.
It was not immediately clear whether the auxiliary officers or the driver of the van were injured in the smash-up.
The van’s driver stayed at the scene, but wasn’t properly credentialed and was hit with a summons for operating a motor vehicle without a license.
An NYPD spokeswoman said that the auxiliary cops were en route to a police emergency. at the time of the collision but did not disclose further details about their destination or the nature of the situation.
The department’s auxiliary police program, thousands of officers strong, enlists civic-minded civilians to help out New York’s Finest in non-enforcement functions, including patrolling subway stations and housing developments, and setting up traffic control at accident and fire scenes.
Social-media users reacting to the viral video, posted by the @NYScan-ner Twitter account, were split on how the tricky maneuver was handled.
“There is Literally Nowhere @NYPDauxiliary is going that warrants this kind of reckless speeding and red light-running,” wrote one user, self-described safe-streets advocate Joanna Oltman Smith.
Another user, going by the handle @stevecripe57, agreed, writing, “Sorry boys, but you never blow an intersection even with lights and siren. Back to defensive driving school for you.”