By Thomas Tracy
A sedan flipped onto its roof following a chilling three-car collision that left one of the drivers recuperating in an area hospital Tuesday.
Area police said that the 1 p.m. smash-up was one of over a dozen vehicular accidents in Canarsie due to icy road conditions.
Nearly double that number of accidents took place in the 63rd Precinct, which covers Bergen Beach, Mill Island, Mill Basin, Marine Park and Flatlands.
Witnesses to the multiple-vehicle accident said that a sedan, a worker van and a third unidentified vehicle smacked into each other at the corner of East 94th Street and Seaview Avenue.
The force of the impact was so severe that one of the vehicles tumbled down the street, ending up on its roof.
FDNY officials said that the driver of the sedan was taken to Brookdale Hospital for trauma. No other injuries were reported.
Cops from the 69th Precinct said that their radios were buzzing all morning beginning with the A.M. rush hour about car accidents — most of them minor — on neighborhood streets.
Upon receiving the high volume of 911 calls, the precinct immediately instituted their traffic safety plan for inclement weather and alerted the Department of Sanitation about the hazardous conditions they were hearing about.
It was unclear if additional salting of the streets was authorized as this paper went to press.
Cops from the 63rd Precinct said that they had a very busy morning answering car accidents caused by icy roads.
“At one time this morning we were trying to respond to sixty 911 calls about car accidents,” said one police source.
Community Board 18 District Manager Dorothy Turano, who fielded a host of complaints of icy road conditions from “every single community,” on Tuesday believes that budget cuts could be to blame.
“Budget cuts should not impact one’s quality of life,” Turano claimed. “Avenue N from Flatbush Avenue to Ralph Avenue was a sheet of ice and there was no excuse for it.”
Turano said that she called the garage to inform them of the complaints, but no one had gotten back to her by Tuesday afternoon.
A Department of Sanitation spokesman said that no plowing was conducted because snow accumulations did not reach two inches.
“We salted each street in the city at least once,” the spokesperson said. “We do go back if necessary.”
But even salting can be hampered by below freezing conditions, the spokesperson said.
“Sometimes we need Mother Nature to work with us,” he said, adding that if anyone wants their street re-salted all one has to do is put in a request with 311.
