By Carol Tannenhauser
A car struck a woman pushing a child in a stroller on Wednesday at around 12:43 p.m., on the corner of West 81st Street and Central Park West, an FDNY officer told this West Side Rag reporter, who arrived at the scene shortly after the incident occurred.
“It was minor. No injuries,” the fireman said. However, a doorman at the nearby Beresford said he “heard” the child had sustained “a small cut to his head,” and that “the stroller ended up in the middle of Central Park West.” The woman and child were inside a Mt. Sinai ambulance parked at the scene.
An NYPD spokesperson did not immediately provide information on the incident, and the FDNY has not officially responded to our query.
We will update when we have further information.
Update: As of 11 pm on Wednesday, the NYPD had no report of this accident, indicating, a detective said, that any injuries were not life-threatening.
I wish the city would release more timely information about people injured in traffic. What if a WSR reporter didn’t happen to be walking along at the moment this was happening? It likely wouldn’t have gotten any attention. I have seen people hit by cars and loaded into ambulances multiple times, and it’s never covered in the news.
there is short staff everywhere. you want more timely news? then go cover it.
If this mother and child had the light the driver should have been booked.
Some points need to be driven home with exclamation points.
And if they didn’t have the light and were jaywalking while she looked at her phone and this driver is now scarred for life?
Let’s not speculate please…
And if the driver had the light and the mother was jaywalking, then what?
Given the new DA’s policies, your expectations are disconnected from the reality.
What exactly has the new DA said about drivers causing pedestrian injuries?
Remember when DOT was presenting CB7 and the oublic its bike lane plan all up and down the East Side of CPW? You know the meeting where the room was too small for all the members of the public who wanted to attend so folks were turned away thus silencing them?
Well the DOT PROMISED the plan would address the crazy and dangerous intersections where the transverse roads through Central Park meet CPw, with West 81st being the most dangerous. Well the bike lane was created in record time. New systems for turns at those transverse roads never happened. Goes to show the DOT doesn’t care about pedestrians.
I was at the meeting that you reference. Every person who showed up on time was allowed into the meeting room. Folks who showed up late, on both sides of the issue were not allowed into the room. There were more than a dozen folks who were for the bike lane who were also not admitted to the room.
A quick look at google maps shows that you are correct. DOT actually made this intersection worse by adding a right turn bay for drivers turning into the traverse. This ensures that uptown drivers will almost never have to slow down for drivers making the right into the traverse. I will just say that speed kills and that if anything these intersections could have easily been calmed by forbidding left turns from downtown CPW into the traverse, narrowing 81st street by adding protected bike lanes, amongst numerous other changes. I will say that I think without the parked cars on the East side of CPW that I think drivers go faster as there is nothing that could potentially damage their cars now that there are only flex delineators on the east side of CPW.
When will DOT remove & narrow traffic lanes for dangerous intersections like this one?
This was no minor accident. The stroller was sent airborne into the middle of the intersection. The screeching, crunching, and screaming was terrifying to hear.
It is a miracle that the toddler escaped with minor injuries. The stroller was totaled.
Grateful mom and baby are safe. Thank you first responders (firefighters) for a rapid response and neighbors for showing concern and awaiting news of the health of the baby. We care about each other.
It happened directly in front of us. Looked like the driver tried to run a red light, mom was NOT hit, stroller did end up on the other end of the intersection. I’ve been waiting all day to see if baby made it. Worst thing I’ve ever seen.
Just reading these comments is stressful enough. Poor mom & little one omg.
Truly awful, there is no punishment for drivers who kill or injure pedestrians. If the pedestrian had the right of way and the driver kills him, there should be an automatic murder charge.
When you make a red light there you know what happens? You have to stop for another red light. Isn’t DOT supposed to investigate serious accidents like this as of January 1 because NYPD always does nothing? Or is that only for fatal accidents.
Can someone fix the ambiguous title? Mom wasn’t hit.
2 years ago I was driving on 95th St & WEA and as I approached the intersection out of nowhere a woman appeared pushing a baby carriage. She was crossing on a red light, talking on her cell, which was cradled between her cheek and shoulder, facing AWAY from oncoming traffic. I slammed on my brakes and thankfully stopped in time. I felt like jumping out of my car and screaming at the woman – but I probably would have been arrested so I didn’t say or do anything. Moral of this story: pedestrians need to be more careful also.
She would not have come out of nowhere. She came from one step behind where she was when you first saw her. The problem was that your attention was elsewhere until the moment you saw her. This could have been because your attention needed to be elsewhere, but often it is because drivers in the city often have their attention where it shouldn’t be. One of the problems we have in the city is, to maximize parking, you are allowed to park up to the crosswalk. In the suburbs, to maximize sightlines at intersections, you are not allowed to park within 15 feet of a corner. This is called daylighting and would save lives and reduce collisions.
The general lack of of civility with motorized vehicles of any kind is appalling and worrisome. Cars speed through yellow and red lights, the others, motorcycles, e-bikes, scooters, skateboards, think nothing of hopping on a crowded sidewalk at considerable speed or going down one way streets the wrong way.
It is dangerous and unnerving.
I’m your basic little old lady with a cane,but I walk an extra block to cross CPW at 82nd St rather than use the pedestrian death trap at 81st. 86th is as bad, if not worse, and it’s worth the extra walk to 85th or 87th to avoid turning cars trying to beat the light.
A pedestrian being struck by a vehicle is not a minor incident even if there were no significant injuries. In health care and other industries this is classified as a “near miss” and as a “never” event. It should never happen.
It seems unlikely that a mother pushing a stroller could have “darted out” in front of the driver making it nearly impossible for the driver to avoid striking them. I hope there’s security camera or traffic camera footage that shows who is at fault.
Hey Woody,
Maybe lighten up on the caffeine.
Without passing judgment, since NONE of us know the EXACT details of what occurred (even eyewitnesses are not always reliable), I have seen BOTH sides of this.
On the one hand, I have seen far too many drivers not obeying pedestrian right of way, and particularly not being extra careful when they turn.
On the other hand, I have seen all too many women (and some men) mindlessly pushing strollers with young children in front of them while they are texting, or otherwise distracted, and have even seen more than one adult push the stroller directly into oncoming traffic with nary a second look.
EVERYONE needs to be more careful.
As a mother, this is one of my worst nightmares. I absolutely hate crossing CPW. I feels like there is absolutely zero traffic enforcement the whole length of iT. We’ve had SO MANY close calls with cars, scooters (Vespa-types), and e-bikes when walking with or pushing our son (especially with people running the light in the bike lane these last couple years). I hope the mother and child are both okay. I’m sure, if nothing else, they’re traumatized.