By Sonja Sharp
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER EAST SIDE — A newspaper delivery truck slammed into a diner at a busy Lower East Side intersection early Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Two people inside the New York Daily News truck were injured in the crash shortly before 1:30 a.m. at the Olympic Restaurant at the corner of Delancey and Essex streets, the FDNY said.
They were taken to Bellevue Hospital with unknown injuries, fire officials added.
The diner’s owner said he got a call about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday alerting him to the smash-up, which caved in the restaurant’s roll-down security gate and caused extensive damage inside.
He said police told him the vehicle veered off Delancey Street while heading eastbound toward the Williamsburg Bridge before crashing into the small corner eatery’s Essex Street side.
“Thank God no one got hurt,” said Olympic’s owner, Charlie, who declined to provide his last name. “We don’t open till 5 in the morning.”
He estimated the broken glass alone will cost about $4,000 to $5,000 to repair, but noted his insurance provider had not yet given him an estimate of the damage.
Nonetheless, the incident didn’t keep patrons from stopping in to pick up their breakfast on Tuesday morning.
“They were all like me,” Charlie said of the customers who came into the restaurant Tuesday morning. “Surprised.”
The intersection of Delancey and Essex streets — where a pedestrian was struck and killed by a truck in May — has been called a "death trap" by advocates pressing for more safety measures at the high-traffic corner.
