An SUV struck a woman in the intersection of Duane and Greenwich streets in Tribeca Friday morning, Feb. 13, hurling the victim at least five feet, according to a witness.
A Fire Department spokesman said the unidentified woman was “awake and breathing” when an ambulance arrived and took her to NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital in unknown condition. Police said they did not have information on the driver.
The witness said the victim, in her mid-20s, was crossing north with the light, “dead in the middle of the crosswalk,” when the southbound SUV, traveling down Greenwich Street, turned into the intersection and hit her.
“The car hit the woman dead on and she went flying,” said the witness, Ann Zemaitis, a dogwalker and former longtime Tribeca resident. “She screamed when she got hit.”
“I was traumatized,” Zemaitis said. “I’ve crossed that street a thousand times.” She described the driver as a woman in her 30s who immediately got out of the car to check on the woman she hit.
Last December, in the early morning, a 20-year-old driver, making that same turn, slammed into Roc Restaurant, on the southeast corner of Greenwich and Duane. No one was hurt in that accident and the driver was not charged.
Many families use the crossing on their way to local schools and Washington Market Park. For two decades, Community Board 1 and residents had been calling for a light at the intersection until, in February 2012, one was installed.