Grandfather killed, 3 injured, including 2 children, in Queens crash
NEW YORK -- A Queens man is dead and his wife and two young grandchildren are in critical condition after a driver slammed into their parked SUV not far from their home Tuesday.
It happened around 3:45 p.m. on 73rd Avenue near 260th Street in the Glen Oaks section.
Into the night, the police lights flashed at the exact spot where Sam Amorese lost his life.
"All I can say is very scary," Glen Oaks resident Erving Ogando said.
What happened on 73rd Avenue is truly heartbreaking.
Police say 67-year-old Amorese and his wife were getting their grandchildren, ages 1 and 5, out of their white Honda SUV when a 39-year-old driver of a Nissan Pathfinder came around the corner and slammed into them.
"He was taking the kids out of the car, and the baby flew from the backseat, out the back of the truck," Glen Oaks resident Rochelle Kapplow said.
Witnesses say Amorese was behind his vehicle when the impact pinned him between the SUV and another car.
The force was blunt. The baby's seat rested on the roadway. Police say Amorese's 65-year-old wife and two young grandchildren were rushed to local hospitals. All three suffered severe leg trauma.
"Devastated, just like everybody else," Kapplow said.
Neighbors in the quiet community say speeding cars on 73rd Avenue have always been a problem.
"They still speed down the street and you hear the cars going dadoom, dadoom," Kapplow said.
"A lot of cars, they drive really fast in this corner over here. I just feel bad for them," Ogando said.
Some even call it the "dead man's curve." That has sadly been proven to be somewhat true tonight.
"I always called it that even before there was a tragedy like this. Because it was inevitable that something would happen on this curve," Glen Oaks resident Gregory Urchenko said.
Detectives say the driver of that Pathfinder was also taken to a local hospital. He was evaluated, and investigators determined he lost consciousness while driving.
