Two Dutch tourists were out for a morning jog in Park Slope yesterday when their visit to Brooklyn nearly cost them their lives. According to witnesses, the driver of a blue van ran a red light on Fifth Avenue and clipped a white van, sending it plowing into a deli at the corner of Ninth Street. A surveillance video outside the Deli & Smoke Shop shows how close Caroline DeJong and her friend came to getting run over:
"I thought I was in a movie!" DeJong told NBC New York after the crash. "There was a whole scene going on behind me. It was strange." A worker inside the store is also lucky to escape serious injury; NBC New York has video from inside the deli, showing the van crashing into the establishment as a worker leaps over the counter.
"If I stepped down one step I would have lost my legs," the deli worker tells NBC New York. "I jumped over the counter to save my life." Another worker says, "I thought it was a bomb." Glass from the deli's door and window shattered and sprayed across the sidewalk, but no one was seriously injured. "I feel really lucky," DeJong tells CBS 2.
The deli owner estimated that damage caused by the crash would cost $20,000 to repair. Of course, neither of the drivers will be charged with any crimes—in fact, the NYPD told CBS 2 they're "not issuing any summonses to the drivers involved. The driver blamed for causing the wreck told cops she was 'stressed' from family issues and admitted she may have been distracted."
