|
Car plows into Hanukkah party, injuring 14
(Newsday (Melville, NY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NEW YORK _ A speeding car on Thursday crashed through plate glass windows into a Woodmere, N.Y., storefront where dozens of children attended a Hanukkah festival, then plowed through the crowded party room running over children and their families, Nassau police said.
Fourteen people were injured at the Hanukkah World party, half of them children including an 18-month-old, sending them to three hospitals for treatment. The oldest injured person was about 40 years old.
The room was suddenly in an uproar as the BMW burst in and the air was filled with shards of broken glass and debris from the windows and walls, Nassau Police Detective Lt. Kevin Smith said.
"People are running in all different directions. There was a lot of chaos at the scene," Smith said.
About 100 people were at the festival, which Smith described as "basically a child's party."
The 2007 BMW X3, with a 76-year-old man at the wheel, came to rest at the far end of the party room with one victim, a man, pinned beneath it. Others at the party came to the aid of the pinned man and lifted or rolled the BMW to free him, police said. The driver's name was not made public.
"The operator lost control of this car. He may have made a claim that something happened with the accelerator," Smith said.
About 30 men together lifted the BMW sport utility vehicle, weighing more than 4,000 pounds, off the man who was trapped under a front tire when it came to rest, said Leo Shalamoff, owner of Pizza Pious, a kosher Italian restaurant across the street from Chanukah Wonderland. Shalamoff said he and one of his employees ran to offer aid.
"When we heard the screams we ran out of the store right away to help," Shalamoff said.
Injured children were on the floor amid pieces of broken glass, metal and wood from window frames and walls, Shalamoff said. He and his employee went to the back wall of the shop where the SUV had trapped a man.
"We saw the man under the car. It was terrible. It was difficult. There was maybe 30 men picking up the car but suddenly we did it. We pulled him out and helped him to the ambulance," Shalamoff said. "There was blood all over."
One of the injured was taken from the scene by helicopter.
The victims were taken to Nassau University Medical Center, Mercy Hospital and Winthrop Hospital.
Several are in serious condition, injured by flying debris, flying glass and blunt force trauma, Smith said.
The driver, who was described as being in shock, was also hospitalized.
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
Faivish Pewzner, who said he was from the Chabad congregation, emerged Thursday evening from the pediatric intensive care unit at NUMC with his wife. He said two children were in the unit with broken bones.
"Thank God, they're recovering nicely," said his wife, who did not want to give her name. "Nothing but a few broken bones."
The 3-year-old brother of one of the victims was in Winthrop Hospital with major injuries, Pewzner said. "He needs facial surgery," he said.
"Poor family _ the mother and father are both in separate hospitals, dealing with trauma," she said.
Yan Kelewitz said his wife and children were in the room at the time of the crash, and that his wife saw the car enter the building.
A couple bringing pizzas to the affected families paused briefly in the NUMC emergency room before heading into the hospital. "It's horrible," the man said.
The incident was being viewed initially as an accident, pending an investigation by First Squad detectives and an accident investigation team, Smith said.
The 2:45 p.m. accident took place at the intersection of East Broadway and Franklin Place. The Hanukkah World storefront is at the northeast corner of the intersection, on the 1000 block of East Broadway.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Witnesses said the car approached a red light at the intersection and then veered to the left, into a parked Honda Pilot, knocking the parked car onto the sidewalk, police said.
The BMW then went through the plate glass, across the party room and ended up at the back of the building against a wall, where it "comes to rest after running over several people," Smith said.
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
A Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi said that parties at Hanukkah World have been taking place for about 10 years. Children go there to learn about the Jewish holy days, going from station to station to learn about different aspects of the holidays, such as the menorah. Rabbi Zalman Wolowik, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Five Towns, told the Web site Chabad.org that counselors will be provided for anyone who needs support.
"Our first priority at this time is to make sure that everyone is taken care of by medical personnel and that all of the children are safe," Wolowik was quoted as saying on Chabad.org. "We are doing whatever we possibly can for the families of these children during this most difficult of times and urge all people of goodwill to keep them in their prayers."
___
(Newsday correspondents Bill Bleyer, Jennifer Barrios and Joseph Mallia contributed to this report.)
___
(c) 2008, Newsday.
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright ? 2008 Newsday
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
