By Jordan Heller and Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Staff
FLATIRON DISTRICT — An out-of-control taxi hopped the curb, plowed through newspaper boxes and crashed into a Sephora at East 19th Street Tuesday in what witnesses described as a scene straight out of the movies.
The driver said his gas pedal was stuck and he swerved to avoid hitting another car near the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 20th Street, police at the scene said.
He sideswiped a ConEd truck before driving onto the sidewalk, leaving a trail of scattered ConEd barriers, traffic cones and a flurry of New York Press newspapers in his wake before coming to a rest in front of the cosmetics store at roughly 11:15 a.m.
"If anyone was walking they would have gotten smashed," said Michael Rivera, 24, who works in the Essentials just north of Sephora. "I'm surprised nobody was walking there. This is a busy commercial street."
One witness posted to Twitter that the cab had gone airborne.
"Holy S--t-squared! The taxi hurdled down the sidewalk and went airborne! Amazingly no deaths," tweeted TheStalwart.
No injuries were reported, fire officials said.
"Thank goodness nobody got hurt, it's a blessing," said witness Natalie Wilkie, 40. "It's like a movie scene."
Frank Calabrese, the ConEd safety administrator for Manhattan, said the cab went more than 100 feet between hitting the ConEd truck and coming to a stop.
ConEd worker Vilgilio Aporta, 61, of the Bronx, was sitting in the front of the truck when it was hit.
"Before you knew it, 'bam!'" said Aporta. "He was going so fast. It's some miracle that nobody was harmed."
William Savage, 62, of Brooklyn, another ConEd worker who was in the truck, said, "I was thinking of doing a couple more years out here. I think I'll retire."
