Two young women were killed in the East Village early Saturday when they were struck by taxis while crossing a busy intersection, the police said.
The women, whom the police identified as Ann Sullivan, 26, of 212 Berkshire Boulevard in Albany, and Stephanie Dees, 26, of 37-12 28th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, were walking south on First Avenue about 3:20 a.m.
As they were crossing 14th Street, they were hit by a taxi that was traveling west. It knocked one of them, Ms. Dees, into the eastbound lanes, where she was hit by another taxi, the police said.
The police said both women were taken to Beth Israel Medical Center, just to the north, where they were pronounced dead.
Both taxis stayed at the scene, and the police said no charges had been filed against either driver.
Jorge Medrano, 22, of Hempstead on Long Island, said he had been visiting a friend in the neighborhood and had just begun crossing 14th Street when he saw the accident. He said the light was turning yellow for the cars on 14th Street, and the two women were walking across together.
“This one taxi tried to beat the light,” Mr. Medrano said. “He hit the first girl. She flew up and into oncoming traffic. He ran over the second girl.”
Mr. Medrano said he and others ran into street to help direct traffic, and a woman who said she was an off-duty emergency worker began giving first aid.
Recalling the accident later, Mr. Medrano said he had only heard the first woman being struck. “The sound was like a thump,” he said. But he saw the second being run down. “I saw the girl bounce as the wheel went over her. I was shocked.”
Other witnesses were similarly emotional hours later.
Late Saturday night, tearing up as he leaned on a light post on 14th Street, not far from the accident, a man who would identify himself only as Cato said that when he rushed into the street, one of the women was fading in and out of consciousness.
“I was telling her, ‘Hold on, sweetie, help is on the way,’ ” he said, recalling how her eyes seemed to move and her eyelids flickered. He ran to the second woman and tried to offer similar words of comfort but, he said, he could tell that she was hurt very badly and may not survive.
It was a chaotic scene, he said, as strangers were trying to help and a fire engine arrived. “Time was going so quick,” Cato said. “I was asking, ‘God, please let these young ladies make it.’ They didn’t have a chance, but I was hoping. They got hit so hard. This doesn’t make sense. Today I was hurting so much thinking about them.”
He thought of his own daughter, he said. “I hope God blesses their children always. I want to send comfort to their families.”
With Stuyvesant Town on its northeast side, an L line subway station underneath, popular bars and clubs nearby and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive a few blocks east, the intersection where the accident occurred is often busy on weekend nights.
It was not immediately known where the women had come from or where they were going.
The police said that Ms. Dees had identification with an address in Petersfield, England.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
{ 0 comments… add one now }