Two men were killed and three other people were critically injured when a driver lost control of his S.U.V. on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan on Friday evening and crashed into a crowd of people, a spokeswoman for the Police Department said.<\/p>\n
The crash happened at 6 p.m. near Amsterdam Avenue and West 109th Street on the Upper West Side. A black Mercedes-Benz S.U.V. smashed into two parked cars, crossed a bike lane and landed in a crowd of people, coming to a stop against a parking meter with its front wheels on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
The driver was a 61-year-old man. It appeared that he was intoxicated, and he was taken into custody at the scene, the police said. The men who died were 35 and 46 years old. The names of the driver and the crash victims have not been released.<\/p>\n
Jorg\u00e9 Santiago and his wife, Eva, were crossing Amsterdam Avenue at 109th Street at the time of the crash. It started two blocks south of them, as they saw the black S.U.V. strike a car at around 107th Street, they said. The vehicle then accelerated north. When it reached 109th Street, it struck a curb that separates the bike lane from the rest of the street. That sent the S.U.V. flying into the air, they said.<\/p>\n
It landed near the spot where a group of men from the neighborhood like to socialize and play dominoes, the couple said. The men on the sidewalk were well known to longtime residents in the area, they said.<\/p>\n
The S.U.V. \u201cjumped in the air, and when it came down, it smashed on everybody,\u201d said Mr. Santiago, 53, who cried as he described the crash.<\/p>\n