On Saturday morning, in what would appear to be a scene from a "Final Destination" movie but is actually just another fact of life in a city that allows motorists to drive 50 mph right next to the busiest bike path in North America, an SUV driver plowed through a metal barrier and rolled their vehicle into Riverside Park.
Bobbi Barnett, a policy advisor who lives in Chelsea, came upon the scene of the crash in the Cherry Walk section of the Hudson River Greenway around 103rd Street shortly before 11:30 a.m., and said the sight of a massive automobile flipped over into a place where many people were walking and riding was "super scary."
"As someone who walks in the park—Hudson River Park and Riverside Park—a lot, you're kind of staring at speeding cars constantly, and you do wonder whether one might jump the guardrail," Barnett told Hell Gate. "I always wondered if it was an irrational fear."
West Side Rag, citing the police, reported that an 18-year-old driving the SUV "lost control and hit a guard rail, after being cut off by another vehicle." The driver of that other vehicle fled. PIX 11 has a few more details.
An FDNY spokesperson told us that two people were transported to St. Luke's Hospital. An NYPD spokesperson, when asked what had happened, responded with the following: "Minor injuries. No arrests."
A clue to what might have happened appears on one of the crashed SUV’s windows: an Instagram handle, @f15_ish. Hours before the crash, that since-deleted account was posting stories about “terrorizing NYC” in their cars and tagging the driver of a white BMW.
Additional information, from either official sources or from local news accounts, is tough to come by—perhaps because we have deemed it unimportant since no one was seriously hurt or lost their lives. (Councilmember Shaun Abreu, whose district includes this section of the park, tweeted that "we're looking into ways to prevent accidents like this from happening in the future," but didn't share any more details. Abreu's office did not respond to our requests for comment.)
But how is this not a compelling story? That thousands of pounds of steel and glass were flung into a populated park on a busy spring day and no one died? That the fear that drivers speeding down the Henry Hudson Parkway will crash into the nearby park is in fact a rational one, and we should do something about it? That a fascination with souped-up cars and speeding down public roads seemingly contributed to a situation that could have ended in many deaths?
We asked the NYPD's press shop, the same folks who will hold an overnight press conference to discuss arrests at a protest and tweet out a photo of a Topo Chico bottle with a rag stuffed in it, to confirm some of these details, or simply provide a factual narrative of what happened with this crash, as they do with literally every other instance where the police respond to a call. "The report is not finalized," an unnamed spokesperson wrote in an email, without any reference to what report they were referring to.
More links to crash into your Tuesday:
- The family of Jordan Neely said in a statement that Daniel Penny "acted with indifference," that Penny's earlier statement on what happened was a "character assassination," and that Penny should go to prison.
- Neely's family also said they wanted to speak with Mayor Eric Adams but the mayor said that hasn't happened yet.
- "We are done with bail," Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters, assuring them that the topic would not be up for discussion anytime soon. Sure, at least until the Post and the suburbs fire up the fear machine again.
- Steve Cohen is throwing lobbyists at the City Council to ensure that his bid for a massive casino next to Citi Field gets built.
- The demand for free 3-K is massive—it's free childcare! But the Adams administration appears to be making it difficult to fill seats, and then using these low enrollment numbers to justify cuts.
- What if E. Jean Carroll Doesn't Win?
- They had to take the Astor Place cube to Connecticut to be serviced? I know a great cube guy in Long Island City, fix you up in 15 minutes.
- And finally, in Eric Adams's New York, the cops will arrest you, even if you have a press credential issued by the Mayor's Office:
