The vehicle careened onto the sidewalk, injuring six people, at least one of them seriously.
One man was pinned under the vehicle and emergency workers cut the car away with a saw to free him. The car also crashed through a coffee cart and came to a rest of the large staircase in front of the building.
The man was taken to Bellevue Hospital and is listed in stable condtion.
As for the other pedestrians, including the coffee cart vendor, they were taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Eyewitness News spoke to two people, Victoria Atkinson and her son Anthony, from Brooklyn, who saw the incident happen and managed to get out of the way.
"I was getting a bagel and coffee," Victoria said. "The next thing I knew, I heard a car coming and my son grabbed me out of the way."
"That's basicallly what happened," Anthony said. "When I realized the car was coming, the first thing I could do was get my mom to safety. At the end, the best thing I could realize that my mom was OK, because that was a scary situation."
Authorities do not suspect any criminality and said it is possible the driver had a seizure.
The building, which houses the state Supreme Court, has been the scene of many high profile trials. Its iconic large staircase has been featured in many movies and television shows. The courthouse features a grand, Roman-style granite staircase with 10 Corinthian columns.
