Driver Careens Down a Tribeca Sidewalk Causing Multi-Car Smash-Up

A Subaru rests atop the car that had been parked in front of it after a Jeep Wagoneer crashed into the car behind it Saturday morning. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

A Jeep Wagoneer careened down the sidewalk of Hubert Street Saturday morning, rear ending a parked car and triggering a chain reaction four-car smashup that sent another parked car flying on top of the vehicle in front of it. 

There were no reported injuries. The river exited the car on his own before sitting down on a nearby curb. A passenger also got out of the car, its airbag deployed.

Security camera video obtained by The Tribeca Trib shows the crash.

Police did not arrest the driver, who refused medical attention. An officer on the scene said it was believed that the driver experienced a “medical episode.”

In security camera video, exclusively obtained by the Trib, the Jeep Wagoneer can be seen heading east past Greenwich Street at a high rate of speed, toppling a street sign, knocking into planters and a tree, then sideswiping a Honda Civic before causing the dramatic multi-vehicle crackup outside of 7 Hubert Street.

Rene Rivera, the doorman at 7 Hubert, said he had just finished sweeping outside the building and was walking inside, the porter behind him, when “Bam! I was very lucky, because I would have been in the impact zone. God knows what would have happened.”

“That’s my car right there,” said Jamie Hort, pointing to the Subaru resting on the roof of the car that had been parked in front of it. “We were heading to the beach within an hour.” 

Jamie’s son, Sam, 23, said he was standing across the street at Collister and Hubert when he saw the Jeep Wagoneer “flying” down the sidewalk. After the crash, Sam Hort said, the driver “hobbled out” and told him he lost control on one of the [cobblestones] and pointed somewhere, but I didn’t see where he was pointing.”

It was only after the fact, when he was on the phone with 911,” he said that he realized, “ Oh, that’s our car!”

“We’re stroller and dog walking central here,” said Lizzie Pincus, who heard the crash from her apartment across the street. “It’s just remarkable that no one was hit.”