A female pedestrian was struck by a Toyota S.U.V. while she was crossing Greene St. at Canal St. early last Friday evening, leaving her with a painful leg injury, apparently a fracture or break. Passersby came to her aid and comforted her, as a light mist fell, while awaiting the arrival of police and E.M.T.’s. The car’s driver, possibly trying to be helpful after ramming into the slight woman (holding her hand over her face, above), kept trying to flick her hood over her head as she lay prostrate on the ground, but it only further distressed her, and she weakly protested, “Please, get away from me!” A Villager reporter told the man he wasn’t an E.M.T. and should leave the injured woman alone until help arrived, and the driver backed off. Police responding to the scene didn’t give the driver a breathalyzer test, despite a reporter’s suggestion, because, as one of them said, the man’s breath didn’t smell of alcohol and his eyes didn’t show signs of intoxication. The Toyota’s driver told the officers he had only been going 5 miles per hour when he struck the woman. However, there didn’t appear to be any witnesses at the scene to corroborate his claim. Medics arrived and made to lift the woman onto a raised gurney on wheels, but she was in too much pain. They next used a body board laid next to her on the ground, but that was also painful for her. “Ahh! I can feel the break!” she winced as they shifted her onto the board, then lifted that onto the gurney. Police took the driver aside, but it didn’t appear they would file any charges. “People are getting hit all the time on this street,” one of the officers noted of busy Canal St.
— Lincoln Anderson
