Two women killed as car driven by 81-year-old crashes through Bronx intersection

Two women were killed and a third was critically hurt Friday afternoon when a car driven by an 81-year-old man went through the intersection of Allerton and Holland avenues in the Bronx and slammed into pedestrians and several vehicles, police said.

According to the NYPD, the man was heading west on Allerton Avenue in a white Mercedes-Benz and could not stop as he came up on traffic that had stopped ahead. Surveillance video shows the car moving slowly at first, then picking up speed through the intersection and striking a person in the crosswalk.

What police say happened on Allerton Avenue

The Mercedes rear-ended two vehicles and then hit two more, setting off a chain-reaction crash that involved five vehicles in all. Officers called to the scene around 2:15 p.m. found three pedestrians unconscious and unresponsive with head and body injuries. All three were taken to Jacobi Hospital in critical condition, and two of them, both women, later died.

Police said nine people were hurt in total and all went to the hospital. The six people riding in the vehicles that were hit stayed at the scene, and the remaining patients were in stable or moderate condition. The driver was conscious and alert with minor injuries. Sources close to the investigation said he was having a medical episode.

Shattered storefronts, no arrests

The impact blew out the front windows of nearby businesses. A man who has worked on the avenue for 35 years said he had never seen anything like it, and another witness described watching several people get hit at once.

Police have not released the names of the victims or the driver. No arrests have been made, it is not clear whether the driver will face charges, and the investigation is continuing.