Van Slams Into Scaffolding on Amsterdam Avenue
Posted on February 5, 2019 at 5:15 pm by West Sider
By Josh Reisner
A minivan crashed into scaffolding on the corner of 89th Street and Amsterdam on Tuesday afternoon, causing the structure to topple onto the vehicle and a traffic light. No one was injured in the crash, which was called in at 3:34 p.m., according to FDNY.
The van driver didn’t explain what may have caused the crash. “It was an accident,” she told us.
NYPD closed off 89th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway, and traffic was blocked up for several blocks.
Photos by Harriet Flehinger.
Now if I can get her to visit my hood!
An “accident,” which doesn’t happen unless the driver is speeding, texting, or otherwise operating in an unsafe manner. Unless the brakes failed, this is user error at its worst, save for the good fortune of nobody being injured. Reckless drivers are the enormous public health epidemic the city is unwilling to address.
Also, WSR, please adjust your reporting language to recognize that a *person* drove a minivan into the scaffolding. Whatever the future of autonomous vehicles, this van did’t drive itself. Calling out human responsibility is paramount. Thank you.
You have never had an accident (not limiting this to cars) without speeding, texting or operating in an unsafe manner?
Bad things happen. Sometimes, it’s no one’s fault. Sometimes it is someone’s fault, but that doesn’t mean the person has acted outside the bounds of normal human behavior. I have no idea whether this person did or did not do something wrong, but neither do you.
Guess we need to change the definition of “accident”, according to Chuck.
Oh knock it off!
When a plane crashes into something no one says ” a pilot…..”.
It was a minivan that crashed into scaffolding. Unless or until self driving motor vehicles become more prevalent the assumption is the thing was being operated by a human being.
On the odd occasions when gears or brake fail causing a parked motor vehicle to roll into something, that is duly noted.
Agreed. Also, the van didn’t do this on it’s own accord. A DRIVER slammed the van into scaffolding.
Driver could have suffered heart attack or stroke. Don’t know either way, just putting it out there.
How come?
i was there and she said it was bc she skipped lunch and felt light headed. yikes.
NEVER SEE ANYONE WORKING ON THOSE BUILDINGS
great photos by an excellent photographer
Would be nice to see a follow up article on this. These things happen and you never hear how and why it happened, of if the driver has had a history of this. It’s important to get an update following the police investigation.
“It was an accident,” she told us.
[cough] texting [cough]
DRIVER Slams Into Scaffolding on Amsterdam Avenue.
Would be good to read a follow-up piece on what happened here. How did it happen and has the driver had similar accidents in the past? Could have been pretty serious, and would be interesting to read what exactly happened.
I was there as well I heard her say she never Black’s out,she stood there for hours until the car was extracted.she tried to back out after the crash which might have killed her and the workers who were indeed up on the scaffolding. She also had a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker.😕