A driver believed to be drunk plowed through a group of 25 cyclists in Brooklyn on Sunday morning, critically injuring a 55-year-old woman.
The alleged driver of the van, 39-year-old Abel Pina of Brooklyn, was arrested at the scene in Borough Park on charges of vehicular assault, driving without a license and driving while impaired.
Police say Pina was intoxicated when he struck cyclists waiting for a red light around 9am – leaving 55-year-old Nancy Pease in critical condition, a 31-year-old man hospitalized in stable condition and a third cyclists with minor injuries.
An alleged drunk driver struck a group of cyclists in Brooklyn on Sunday morning, pinning a 55-year-old woman under his car. Abel Pina, 39, of Brooklyn, was arrested at the scene in Borough Park on charges of vehicular assault, driving without a license and driving while impaired
Other cyclists looked on as officials rescued 55-year-old Nancy Pease from underneath the van
The cyclists involved in the crash were taking part in the NYC Century Bike Tour, a 100-mile ride through four boroughs that advocates for safer streets.
Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, which organized the event, said that the cyclists were ‘mowed down’ by the Dodge van.
‘One of the victims is fighting for her life right now,’ White told NBC New York, referencing Pease. ‘This occasion of joy should not have turned into this.’
Pease, a former English teacher from Queens, had to be freed from underneath a van by firefighters.
Police say Pina was intoxicated when he struck cyclists waiting for a red light around 9am – leaving 55-year-old Nancy Pease in critical condition, a 31-year-old man hospitalized in stable condition and a third cyclists with minor injuries
The cyclists involved in the crash were taking part in the NYC Century Bike Tour, a 100-mile ride through four boroughs that advocates for safer streets
Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, which organized the event, said that the cyclists were ‘mowed down’ by the Dodge van
She was then taken to Maimonides Medical Center in critical condition.
Brandon Painter, 31, told New York Daily News that the driver of the van had ‘floored it and went through all of us’.
‘He ran over us. He ran over my bike. I was under the front left tire,’ Painter, whose right foot was run over in the crash, told the Daily News.
Approximately 25 cyclists were waiting for a red light went the car rammed into the group.
Painter said that Pina looked ‘intent on running the group of people over’ and that he looked ‘crazy’ before the incident occurred.
Painter’s friend, another cyclist in the group who did not want to be named, said that Pina got out of the car in a daze, ‘not able to comprehend what’s happening’.
A bystander threw Pina on the ground as others called 911. They held the man until police arrived.
Since the incident on Sunday morning, neighbors in the Borough Park area have put flowers near the sport were the cyclists were struck