A severe car accident between a pickup truck and a livery cab at the intersection of Adam Clayton Powell Blvd and 145th St. (Dan Brinzac)
An 89-year-old woman was killed and three other pedestrians were injured as a horrific chain-reaction car crash left a trail of blood at an intersection in Harlem, police said yesterday.
Leonia White was being pushed in her wheelchair when she and the other victims were struck at the corner of West 145th Street and Seventh Avenue at around 12:10 p.m., cops and witnesses said.
Ramon Tisa, driving a Lincoln Town Car, was making a left turn on to 145th Street when a Toyota pickup truck, heading south on Seventh Avenue, plowed into it, police said.
The pickup spun around, hurtled onto the sidewalk, and smashed into the pedestrians, cops said.
“The lady couldn’t move. She was lying on her back and there was a lot of blood,” said a witness, Luke Shaw, 40.
“Her eyes were closed and she wasn’t saying nothing,” added Alpha Diallo, 37, who lives nearby,
Witnesses said the truck finally came to a halt after its front tire blew and it narrowly missed commuters at a bus stop.
“It was a whole lot of chaos. You couldn’t even go over there,” said a nearby resident. “People were running around frantic and concerned, trying to help.”
Diallo said he spoke to Tisa shortly after the accident, and the Town Car driver claimed he had had the right of way.
But a cousin of the unidentified pickup driver disputed that. “He [the truck driver] had the green light, and after the collision he spun around,” the relative said.
He said the pickup driver was traumatized by the incident. “He’s really shaken up,” the cousin said.
The pedestrians and Tisa were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital. White died at Harlem Hospital.
“She was a sweet person,” said a neighbor J.R. Green.
“She was a well-loved person, very strong, very active,” said Green, who added that the victim was a “churchgoing woman” and lifelong Harlem resident.
Tony Castillo, Tisa’s co-worker at Kennedy Radio Dispatch said, “I know he’s going to feel really bad when he finds out somebody died, because he has family, too.”
Police are still investigating, but no charges were immediately filed and no criminality is suspected.