HELL'S KITCHEN — Three people were injured when a car and SUV crashed into each other in a Hell's Kitchen intersection before smashing into a scaffolding, FDNY officials said.
The Chevy Suburban and Lexus LS slammed into each other at the intersection of West 53rd Street and 10th Avenue about 10:30 a.m. — sending the SUV into a nearby scaffolding, officials and witnesses said. Debris plummeted from the scaffolding, burying the SUV, witnesses said.
The man behind the wheel of the Suburban and a woman and a young man who had been inside the Lexus were taken to area hospitals in stable condition, an FDNY official on scene said.
Firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to free the driver of the SUV from beneath the rubble, witnesses said.
"The driver of the Suburban was trapped. he couldn't get the door open. The airbag was up and he was talking on the phone," said Edward Hudson, 44, a tow truck driver who was working at an unrelated site nearby at the time of the crash.
"[Firefighters] laid him out on a stretcher and took him away. He was in a black suit," Hudson added.
Hudson added that the driver and passenger of the Lexus "looked OK. They were walking away."
An NYPD spokesman did not have further information about the crash.
