MTA police vehicle crashes through fence, flips into Staten Island homeowner’s backyard
By DAVE CARLIN
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NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — There’s a scene of destruction in a Staten Island homeowner’s backyard after an MTA Bridges and Tunnels police vehicle crashed through a fence and overturned.
It happened at a home in the Grasmere neighborhood on Friday afternoon.
Emergency workers rescued an officer from the vehicle, who was rushed to the hospital. The officer is expected to survive, CBS2’s Dave Carlin reported.
Homeowner Miriam Montoya’s backyard was covered with parts of the obliterated fence, pieces of a power pole and crushed glass and metal.
The overturned police car was left in a corner of the property with a wheel left behind on the embankment.
Around 1:30 p.m., the officer traveled down Narrows Road North near Clifton Avenue, left the roadway, hit a utility police and careened through the fence.
Montoya said she was taking a nap.
“I say what happened? I came out, and I see the guy, the car coming like that,” Montoya said.
Neighbor Tim Rubithas said he saw the TBTA car seconds before the crash hit a low section of the roadway.
“When you go over a dip that fast, it’s just gonna happen. It seemed like he caught traction, but then when it went behind the house, couldn’t see it anymore. I heard tires skidding followed by like a loud boom,” Rubithas said. “He flew in from an angle, completely knocked down the whole fence. Toolshed gone.”
Rubithas said he ran to the backyard and found the officer injured having just climbed out of the flipped car.
“By the time I got to the back, he was already outside,” Rubithas said. “He was like crouching, like on his knees … So me and another guy, we just helped him, brought him to the front in case the car blew up.”
The crash did not greatly impact traffic.
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