Two people died and three were critically injured after a 61-year-old driver plowed his Mercedes-Benz into a crowd of pedestrians on Manhattan’s Upper West Side Friday, cops said.
The driver was heading north on Amsterdam Ave. in his black GLC 300 SUV when he lost control near W. 109th St. around 6 p.m., according to law enforcement.
The Mercedes slammed into a silver Volkswagen Jetta, careened into a bronze Chevy Astro and then mounted the sidewalk, according to witnesses.
A nearby resident watched from her window overlooking the scene as the horror unfolded.
“There were two men lying on the ground. Another man was giving one of them CPR. Someone was screaming, ‘We need an ambulance! Where are the ambulances?’” Jaime Cunningham, 49, told the Daily News.
“It was awful,” she added. “The black car, the Mercedes, was going fast.”
A woman dining at a nearby restaurant said the driver slammed into a cyclist before mounting the sidewalk.
“It was a loud impact,” said Marilyn Williams. “My husband ran over and he came back pretty upset. He said there was one person trapped beneath the black car and there was a young cyclist who was riding in the bike lane who was hit and thrown onto the sidewalk.”
“Some local people were trying to give him CPR, but it didn’t seem to be working.”
Medics rushed five injured pedestrians, all men, to local hospitals in critical condition, where two of them died, police said.
The driver remained at the scene. Police are investigating whether he was intoxicated, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
There were no arrests.