An NYPD officer was struck by a car and pinned between two vehicles in Manhattan after the driver of a Dodge Charger careened into him Friday morning.
The 26-year-old uniformed officer was walking to his car on the corner of W. 13th St and Seventh Ave. in the West Village when the driver of the Charger, heading south on Seventh Ave., changed lanes and hit a street sweeper, said police.
The 43-year-old man behind the wheel of the Charger then bounced off the sweeper, lost control of his car and crashed into the cop, trapping him between the Charger and his own patrol car.
The NYPD Highway Patrol investigates after a police officer was struck by a Dodge Charger on Seventh Ave. and W. 13th St. in Manhattan on Friday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
A woman who works across the street from where the crash took place and watched surveillance video of the incident told the Daily News the driver of the Charger appeared to be speeding.
“It was pretty, pretty fast and then he crashed into a sanitation car. He crashed over there and then he’s doing circles and then he crashed out with a police car,” said Abi Aguirre, 21, who works at Bagel RX.
According to Aguirre, the footage then showed the black Dodge Charger spin several times before colliding with the marked police vehicle.
Aguirre said the uniformed officer spotted the car spinning out of control and tried to run to safety, but didn’t have enough time to avoid being struck.
“There was a police officer trying to go into the car … he tried to run away when he saw the car,” said Aguirre. “The sound of the car, when he was doing circles … it was pretty, pretty heavy.
“The black [car] was really speeding … He was so fast.”
Both the officer and driver of the Charger were taken to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
There have been no charges yet.