Women waiting at bus stop seriously injured after pickup truck jumps curb
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LEVITTOWN, New York (WCBS) — There was a frightening accident caught on camera on Long Island on Wednesday.
A pickup truck jumped a curb and crashed into a bus stop, seriously injuring two people, CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reported.
It was around noon when two women were quietly waiting for a bus at a busy stop in Levittown, when suddenly an out-of-control truck rammed into them. There was then frantic effort to save one woman pinned under the debris.
Not much was left of a Hempstead Turnpike bus shelter after it was crushed by a truck, which had just exited the Tri County Shopping Center.
Surveillance video shows two women taking a seat at the bus stop, but moments later, as the truck turns right, the driver door is seen swinging open and the truck veers out of control, slamming into waiting passengers.
Witnesses who ran to help told CBS2 one woman was pinned under debris. Half a dozen good Samaritans freed her and rendered life-saving first aid.
“You could see her laying with the thing on top of her. The police were with her. The customers were with her. People were all over the parking lot. It was horrible,” witness Kathy Keve said.
“Very scary. They were taking people away in ambulances,” another witness said.
Also rushing to the scene was a friend of the pickup truck driver.
“It’s an accident. I know Raul and he’s a very good person,” said Martin Acurdia, a pastor in Freeport.
One man told Gusoff he takes the bus every day and would have been sitting in that very spot if not for a few extra moments he spent Wednesday with his mother.
Baffled onlookers said they thought the truck had veered to avoid another car, but the surveillance video shows it was the driver’s door that flung open. He then loses control.
Sources said the driver and the two women bus stop passengers were seriously injured. Both women were undergoing surgery on Wednesday.
They were saved perhaps by the quick-thinking good Samaritans who didn’t want to be on camera, but told Gusoff one woman was not breathing when they revived her, by closing a gaping chest wound using whatever they could grab.
Sources said one of the women injured is pregnant.
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