A six-car pileup in Park Slope that sent five people to the hospital on Thursday night was allegedly caused by an illegal drag race, according to first responders and multiple witnesses.
“They were drag racing,” said a responding firefighter, who declined to provide his name.
Authorities arrived on the scene near Fifth Avenue just before midnight to find several damaged cars scattered in the street and on the sidewalk between Fifth and Sixth streets.
Paramedics took five people to nearby Methodist Hospital for treatment of their injuries, according to a Police Department spokesman.
Witnesses at the location recounted the deafening sound from the accident.
“There was a super loud noise and we came outside and found all these cars,” said Kelsey Lomonaco, who had been inside a bar nearby. “It looked like the people were really hurt.”
Another passerby recalled the sound of speeding vehicles that immediately preceded the impact.
“They were definitely racing,” said Elias Mandel. “I just heard a bunch of cars speeding, and then a series of loud bangs.”
Video captured from the area just before the crash shows two cars speeding into oncoming traffic.
This is not the first incident of drag racing along that very stretch of Fifth Avenue, according to one Park Slope resident who lives near the crash scene and claimed that speeding motorists have been a problem for months.
“This is a long standing problem, and I want people to know about it because it’s dangerous,” said the woman. “I’ve made several calls to 311 but that didn’t seem to get anywhere.”
Another local said the drivers of the drag racing cars were relatively unharmed by the accident, and showed little contrition for the damage they’d done.
“When I first got there, the racing drivers were in an ambulance getting checked out. Later when they came out on the street, they appeared to be totally fine — not a scratch on them. They really did not give a s— about all the damage they had done,” said the witness. “The racers were total a——- with zero remorse about what had happened.
An NYPD spokesman could not immediately confirm that the crash resulted from illicit racing. No arrests have yet been made, and the investigation remains ongoing.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
