At least eight people were injured after a cement truck rammed into a cell phone store at 145 Canal St., just north of the on/off ramp of the Manhattan Bridge, around 1 p.m. on Wednesday. 

It was the second serious truck accident since June 2008.

A Fire Department spokesman said Wednesday afternoon that the exact cause of the accident had not been determined. Four of the victims were said to be in "serious, but stable condition" after being taken to local hospitals. The other four were treated and released at the scene of the incident.

The truck had come across the bridge and was heading for the Bowery when the accident occurred. Six other vehicles were badly damaged in the wreck, all of them appearing as though they had been hit from behind. Firefighters had to pull the crippled cement truck out of the storefront with a winch on the back of a FDNY rescue truck.

It was at least the second time in 18 months that a vehicle has struck a building along the one-lane jog connecting the main drag of Canal Street to the Bowery. The crowded sidewalk doubles as the boarding point for the Fung Wah bus. On June 23, 2008, a Bay Ridge woman was killed and three more were injured when

a truck coming from the bridge plowed into a parked Fung Wah bus, catapulting it onto the sidewalk.

An employee at the New York Jewelers Exchange—who identified himself only as John—on the opposite side of the intersection, said the intersection has long been a hazard.

“Ever since I was a kid, trucks come flying off the bridge,” he said. “It’s at least three or four times a year, this happens, and it’s always these trucks. They fly right off that thing like there’s no tomorrow.”

After 10 years at the store, John said he no longer ventures across the intersection for his lunch for fear of becoming the next casualty.

“I’m afraid just to go buy food on that corner,” he said. “It’s horrible over there. I walk around the corner now to Hester [Street].”

In a joint statement released hours after the accident, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Senator Daniel Squadron offered their sympathy to the victims, and urged the city's Department of Transportation to make it safer to drive and walk in Chinatown.

"This incident is another painful reminder of the deep need to improve pedestrian safety and traffic management in Chinatown," Stringer and Squadron said in their statement. "We continue to believe it is both possible and imperative to overcome the unique pedestrian safety challenges our community faces."

Margaret Chin, who was recently elected to represent District 1–incuding Chinatown–on the City Council, said she was well aware of the dangers of the intersection of Canal Street and Bowery, and had brought her concerns to the DOT in the past. Chin said she would press the department to look at traffic calming measures, including diverting trucks away from Canal Street as they come off the bridge.

"This crash illustrates yet again the dangers posed by traffic at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge," Chin said. "We have lost too many lives and had too many accidents like this one to continue to ignore the danger here."