Neighbors express concerns about safety after car doing doughnuts crashes into Jeep in Bronx, injuring 8 pedestrians
NEW YORK -- A crash early Sunday morning injured a driver and several pedestrians in the Bronx.
CBS New York has learned one of the cars involved was doing doughnuts in the street.
Neighbors in the Unionport section of the borough said this is an ongoing issue.
Layers of skid marks darken the intersection of Gleason and Commerce avenues. Police said the driver of a white BMW was doing doughnuts in the street around 7 a.m., when it was struck from behind by a Jeep. Eight pedestrians were hit during the collision.
"I heard the 'zoom,' the screeching of the wheels and my dog got all crazy and stuff. 'Woo woo woo,'" neighbor Rene DeJesus said.
The pedestrians and the driver of the BMW were taken to Jacobi Hospital with minor injuries. Some of their friends were waiting outside the hospital on Sunday afternoon and said the victims are doing okay, but didn't want to share anything else. Decades-long neighbors on Gleason Avenue said they are all too used to hearing and seeing late-night, sometimes overnight, car meet-ups on summer weekends, with their street used as a pathway in.
"They don't drive. They zoom," Lydia Ramos said.
"The next block, they have speed bumps. The block over there has a speed bump. Us over here, no speed bump," DeJesus said.
Neighbors said they've asked the city multiple times for speedbumps and for a traffic light at the end of their block, but nothing has changed. Elise Rentas said she worries for her 2-year-old son.
"I've had times where people just fly right past us and I'm pulling him back. It's really, really scary," Rentas said.
Police haven't said specifically if the eight pedestrians struck were affiliated with what the BMW was doing, but neighbors say activities in the area draw big crowds.
"There's always a big crowd. At least 15 car loads of people," Edwin Sostre said.
"It's part of the neighborhood, the way I see it," Gabriel Torres added.
Police said the driver of the Jeep that was involved in the crash kept on going. Hours later, officers found the vehicle in Jersey City. No arrests have been made.
