Jun 21, 2008 12:18 pm US/Eastern
18 Recovering After Being Struck By Cars In NYC
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Three out-of-control drivers careened off the roads into pedestrians, leaving 18 people hurt on Friday.
CBS
More than a dozen pedestrians are recovering Saturday after being hit by cars in three separate incidents. All the victims were on the sidewalk at the time.
Unlicensed driver Estabannie Sanchez was led away in handcuffs Friday after being behind the wheel of an SUV which jumped the curb on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.
"We basically heard a noise behind us and turned around and the jeep was already on the pavement, on the sidewalk, all wheels," said witness Ian Cairns.
The out-of-control explorer plowed into 10 pedestrians on the sidewalk in front of the music store the driver was attempted to get to.
"There was a lady under the front, a guy on the side, two underneath the back wheel," another witness said.
Also pinned under the vehicle was a little boy, helped by people like Eliete Alvarez, who hurt his neck when the vehicle sent him into a truck.
"We lifted the car, got the boy out. The boy was with his mother. The boy was fine," Alvarez said.
Tourist Christine Cairns managed to escape without injury, even though she was grazed by the Explorer. "It caught my leg. It wedged my leg against the glass door, which was open, and I managed to edge it on or I would have been down, down under the jeep," she said.
A short time earlier up in Harlem another driver, in a livery cab, lost control and hit a 55-year-old woman then crashed into a Washington Mutual bank.
The woman was taken in critical condition to the hospital, and the driver was given a ticket for driving while on a cell phone.
And on the East Side a 60-year-old man stepped on the gas instead of the brake while exiting a parking spot and struck seven people, two of whom were in serious condition at the hospital Saturday morning.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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