Four victims were trapped under a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck.
Three people were killed and seven others were injured after a suspected drunk driver crashed his vehicle into a park on New York City’s Lower East Side, police said Thursday night.
The 44-year-old driver, a New Jersey man, was driving the gray Ford F-150 when he struck several pedestrians in the park, at the intersection of Water Street and Jackson Street, at 8:53 p.m. Thursday, police said.
The driver was traveling east on Water Street when he ran a stop sign, went over the curb and crashed in Corlears Hook Park. The pickup truck was on top of four of the victims when authorities arrived. Good Samaritans held the driver until police arrived.
New York Fire Department officials arrived on the scene within three minutes and found four victims trapped under a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck, officials said.
Authorities said the FDNY worked with NYPD emergency responders to extract the patients from beneath the vehicle.
Two women were pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. A man was pronounced dead at New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital
The 59-year-old woman and the 38-year-old man appear to be related. The other woman appears to be in her early 40s.
Among the injured hospitalized are a mother and her two young children, police said.
Emergency responders smelled alcohol at the scene, police said. Tests are being conducted to determine whether the driver was intoxicated at the time of the incident, they added.
The driver has been taken into custody and is facing charges. He was believed to have been intoxicated at the time of the incident.
Authorities have said there is currently no evidence of terrorism, although the investigation is ongoing.