Volume 21, Number 10 | THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN | July 18 – 24, 2008
Police Blotter
Death on South St.
A driver said to be on drugs lost control of his car and crashed into the rear of two motorcycles early on Monday evening July 21, near the Staten Island Whitehall Ferry Terminal, killing one biker and seriously injuring another, police said.
The driver of a Volkswagen Jetta, Adam Greenberg, 31, of Brooklyn, was also seriously injured and taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. He was later charged with driving while under the influence of unspecified drugs and with reckless driving.
Greenberg, traveling south on South St., passed a parked city bus and rear-ended one motorcycle, sending the rider tumbling several feet along the street, and then slammed into the rear of a second motorcycle whose rider was found dead under the car after it crashed into a chain link fence and mounted a concrete barrier, police said.
The dead man was identified as Dimitrios Kazanas, 39, of Queens. The injured biker, identified as Gary Quinlan, 28, was taken to Bellevue in critical condition.
A souvenir vendor, who works on the corner of Whitehall and State Sts., said “everything was messed up. There was pieces of the car everywhere….It was so bad, I couldn’t stand to look at it. It was the worst accident I ever seen.”
The day after the accident, several Staten Island commuters said the intersection didn’t seem to be a problem. One called the crash a “freak accident.”
Greenberg, the driver, had been in two accidents in January and February of this year and had been cited for speeding and reckless driving, according to news reports. He was also cited previously for talking on his cell phone while driving.
Grand St. grab
A thief followed an 89-year-old woman into her building on Grand St. and the F.D.R. Drive at 3 p.m. Mon., July 21 and stole her bag, police said. The suspect held the elevator door open for the victim who was pushing her shopping cart and rode up with her to the third floor. He got off and followed her to her apartment door where he grabbed the bag and fled, police said.
— Albert Amateau with Laura Latzko
