A building has collapsed on Avenue P and East 5th Street in Flatbush, after an out-of-control vehicle slammed into it on Monday night.
The incident prompted a massive response from Hatzolah, FDNY and NYPD, just before 11:30PM.
After an extensive search, it appeared that there was no one trapped in the rubble. The first floor of the building, a former convenience store, is vacant. Five residents who lived in the building’s second floor were not home at the time of the collapse. The upper floor also houses a real estate office which was closed for the night.
The 20-year-old driver, Andrew Baird, of Brooklyn, got out of the 2018 BWM rental car and tried to run away on foot. He was apprehended nearby thanks to volunteers from Flatbush Shomrim who quickly canvassed the area. They were assisted by Boro Park Shomrim as well.
The driver was taken to the Lutheran Hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Baird is being held on suspicion of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of the accident. He allegedly had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol.There are also reports that a passenger may have run away from the scene.
The city’s Office of Emergency Management used a drone to fly overhead to determine how best to safely take down what remains of the structure and the safety of the buildings next door.
“Buildings will have to determine the stability of that occupancy before they are allowed to reoccupy,” Brooklyn Borough Commander Asst. Chief Wayne Cartwright said.
Watch: #FDNY drone footage from May 7, 2019 – car into a building with partial collapse at 496 Avenue P in #Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/hQssdpWWmN
— FDNY (@FDNY) May 7, 2019
Just got this surveillance video showing the moment of impact when a speeding car took down an entire building at Ave P and E 5 in Brooklyn last night #abc7NY https://t.co/HXNpiGfpzf pic.twitter.com/sfarp7DYb7
— Derick Waller (@wallerABC7) May 7, 2019
One patient with a non-life threatening injury transported to hospital from building collapse on Ave P in Brooklyn. pic.twitter.com/MVzzU9hAgF
— FDNY (@FDNY) May 7, 2019
Brooklyn – Car slams into building on Ave P and East 5 Street; reports of people trapped. Hatzolah, FDNY, NYPD on scene pic.twitter.com/zdzXQtbpnq
— NYScanner (@nyscanner) May 7, 2019
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15 Responses
This rotten City run by DeBlasio yemach shemo will give the punk a ticket and a summons and send him home. Keep in mind that had this guy committed this act just 2 hrs earlier, the potential for many tragedies would have been real.
Looks more like a bomb than a car crash. Very suspicious
in all fairness buildings dont collapse from car ramming ?
why a million responders ? once you see there is nothing to do why not go home?
The damage the driver caused far exceeds his auto insurance liability coverage,
I don’t understand how a car could cause an entire building to collapse, but the photos do show it happened.
There must have been serious structural damages and instability to this building for it to collapse from a car crashing into it
What does NYPD have on their surveillance cameras on that corner? Where’s the car??
Huh?!?
To comment #1 what does this have to do with Deblasio?!?
A drunk driver driven by teenagers is his fault also!!
Go eat bagels and lox on Avenue J. And stop spewing hate and nonsense when you done even know what your talking about.
Josh
That’s pretty hypocritical of you “hate” ???
“Go eat cream cheese and lox in Avenue J” ??? Little paradoxical don’t you say?
Sorry let me correct “bagels and lox on Ave J”
The candy store on the ground level just closed a week or two ago. That owner was VERY lucky.
It was a huge bracha that he hit that corner. That building was completely empty. Just one block away is a big shul that’s a “minyan factory”. B’h the accident happened away from there.
Wow, looks like the tuna beigels were having a blast.
A building doesn’t fall down from a car hitting it. Was it build like a mud hut in Kenya? Something is not adding up.
People don’t realize that many “buildings” in NYC were truly built like huts years ago. If a house doesn’t obviously crumble, slant or tip, no one is the wiser, or wants to be. Rebuilding anything but a Sukkah in NY requires many permits and bureaucratic hassles, besides for the regular construction costs. AFAIK there are no required inspections to make sure buildings are secure and sound after any number of years. When there’s a sale, the buyer will likely do his own inspection, but if not sold most owners don’t want to open a can of worms and schlep as long as they can, even if they suspect something might be amiss. As long as the rent rolls in…
Now I’m not asking the city to force inspections, but if they ever do it should only be combined with low cost loans so the owner to afford the necessary structural repairs.
TG everyone ok. No coincidence that bein hazmanim is over and nobody injured or killed.
Josh from Brooklyn who doesn’t sound friendly to Jews, your liberal mayor who protects illegal immigrants and terrorists over new York citizens has emboldened the militant blacks.
> Josh from Brooklyn
Aside from what others have already stated, building inspections are normally the city’s responsibility and obviously this building was not safe, so obviously they are not doing their job.