Suspected drunken driver goes on wild ride through 34th St., injuring 5 pedestrians and crashing into clothing store

An apparently drunken driver went on a wild ride down 34th St. Wednesday night, cutting a path of destruction through Herald Square — injuring five pedestrians and pinning one woman when her car slammed into the showcase window of Forever 21, police and witnesses said.

“There were four bodies in the air,”said Matty Thomas, a bike messenger riding on 34th St. during the crash. “There was a lady who got hit as (the car) went through the glass window. Her body was in the display case and her legs were under the car.”

The driver, who authorities suspect was intoxicated, was driving a silver Mustang convertible east on W. 34 St. when she rear-ended a gray Subaru Forester between Sixth and Seventh Ave. in front of Macy's flagship store shortly before 9 p.m., police said.

As the man driving the SUV stepped out to check the damage, the woman threw her car into reverse, apparently trying to pull a U-turn. She then abandoned the maneuver and continued to head east, slamming the SUV a second time and then shooting down E. 34 St. in the wrong lane, police and witnesses said.

 

The woman then stepped on the gas and clipped a car as she crossed Sixth Ave., before smashing into a Chevy Impala head on and sending it rolling backward into a yellow cab, police and witnesses said.

“The car came at me like out of a movie. She was skidding like a snake across 34th St.,” said the driver of the yellow cab, Kuljit Singh, 44. “She was totally out of control ... I thought we all were going to die.”

Then the convertible jumped the sidewalk, plowing into the pedestrians and smashing through a plate-glass window at the bloody end of the demolition derby.

Witnesses said the pedestrian who took the brunt of the impact appeared to be badly injured.

“She was bleeding all from the side of her head. They had to saw her out of the car,” witness Thomas said. “It’s going to be in my mind for the rest of my life.”

All the pedestrians hit were seriously injured, but they were expected to survive, a Fire Department spokesman said. They were all taken to Bellevue Hospital.

The woman and a man in the car suffered minor injuries, according to a police source.

“She didn't look too good and, neither did her male passenger, they were staggering,” a police source said.

Cops were investigating the crash.