Woman hit by construction blade in freak midtown accident

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A close call for one pedestrian who was injured in a freak accident on Manhattan's West Side.

It happened at 9th Avenue and West 48th street Tuesday morning.

Workers were cutting the street with construction machinery when a blade suddenly got loose, went flying half a block.

It grazed a woman on her leg.

The 43 year old victim was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with a laceration to her leg.

Construction work stopped as investigators looked into the incident.

Security camera video captured the moment pedestrians scattered for their lives along the busy street, as the three-foot wide construction saw blade came flying toward them.

"It must have been moving at 50 miles and hour, maybe even more," said eyewitness Lillian Santiago.

"It flew off the machine and it almost killed everybody," said eyewitness Georgina Sosa.

Sosa was standing on the corner at 48th Street and says the jagged-edged blade suddenly flew off a machine used to cut pavement, bounced off the concrete and a small fence, then hit the woman on the sidewalk about 100 feet away.

"It was the most scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. I thought the lady was very cut. We all thought we were going to get sliced and diced," said Sosa.

"She was scraped all along the right side of her body. Her leg was scraped and she was bleeding in the lower portion of her body," said Santiago.

Workers spent much of the rest of the day trying to figure out exactly what happened. The city's Department of Design and Construction released a statement: "We have directed the contractor to not use any other saws on the job until the equipment is inspected and confirmed to be in proper working condition."