Car careens into outdoor dining area, injures woman in Brooklyn
GREENPOINT, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A woman was injured when a car struck an outdoor dining area in Brooklyn, and the driver kept on going.
It happened in front of Cafe Alula on Franklin Street in Greenpoint at 11:50 a.m.
A gray Toyota Camry was making a right turn on Franklin Street when it struck a barricade in the street, and the barricade the hit the woman who was dining at the cafe.
Surveillance video:
Matt and Briana White were there.
"In one instant, we're just having coffee, and then out of nowhere we just feel a big push," Matt White said. "We just get thrown. We didn't see anything. It just snuck up behind us."
Ladia Guerra works at Cafe Alula.
"I heard a loud crash and I thought it was the construction, but I turned around and I saw a car had plowed into the dining area," she said. "I was horrified."
The 33-year-old woman was rushed to NYU Langone Brooklyn in stable condition.
"I was just in total shock," Matt White said. "I couldn't talk. I saw his face. It was an older man."
Police are continuing to search for the driver who fled the scene.
"It would be helpful if there were some concrete barriers provided for these type of places," Briana White said, "It's really nice to sit outside, especially because of COVID."
Just days ago, three people were treated for minor injuries after a car crashed into an outdoor dining area on the Upper East Side.
It happened outside the Delizia restaurant on the southeast corner of 92nd Street and Second Avenue.
A Cadillac Escalade was involved in a crash with an Audi sedan, and police say one of the cars plowed into the wooden outdoor dining setup and decimated the wooden barrier.
The canopy was left mangled, and at least two people were treated for minor injuries.
RELATED | Is dining outside really safe during coronavirus pandemic? Experts weigh in
In Brooklyn, jarring surveillance video showed an out-of-control vehicle plowing into an outdoor dining area on July 21.
Security footage showed a pickup truck crashing into L'Wren's curbside dining area around dusk.
One group that tracks these kinds of crashes has counted at least 20 nationwide this year, compared to just four last year.
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