Man dead, woman critically injured after car crashes down into Brooklyn rail yard
NEW YORK -- A man is dead and a woman is in critical condition after the car they were in veered off the road and landed in a Long Island Rail Road yard in Brooklyn.
It happened Friday afternoon on Vanderbilt Avenue near Atlantic Avenue.
The Audi took a barricade with it as it sped through a fence, then fell 30 feet down into the area of Atlantic Terminal rail yard.
"Most of us kind of, like, jumped out the way, obviously, as it was accelerating," witness D Elliott said.
Elliott says it was like a scene from a movie. He was on a walk to meet a friend around 12:45 p.m. Friday when he and pedestrians heard the car accelerate from the McDonald's ramp across the street. He moved out of the way as it drove straight through the fence.
"A few people just rushed down the steps to quickly try to see who they could drag out of there, see what's the condition of those individuals," he said.
Police believe the 70-year-old man behind the wheel suffered a medical emergency when the incident happened.
The man and his passenger, a 60-year-old woman, were rushed to Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, where the man was pronounced dead. He has been identified as Francois Cadely.
The passenger remains in critical condition.
The car was towed away on the rails hours later.
It's still unclear what the relationship between the driver and his passenger was.
Police are waiting for autopsy results to find out what exactly happened to the driver leading up to the crash.
LIRR service was not disrupted.
