Out-of-control drivers, apparently both drunk, wreaked havoc in the Village over the past week.
According to news reports, on Wed., Nov. 25, a 61-year-old driver was pulling his Mercedes out of a garage at Thompson and W. Third Sts. around 4:30 p.m., when he lost control and went zooming through the outdoor dining area of Cuba restaurant across the street. The Benz also broke the eatery’s window.
The Daily News reported cops said the driver was charged with driving under the influence, reckless endangerment and reckless driving.
“He was coming crazy fast,” a worker at Cuba told the News. “Thank God nobody was at our outside dining.”
The driver reportedly was taken to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries but no one else was hurt.
In another scary incident, just a few days later, on Sunday around 2 a.m., a driver came speeding down Fifth Ave. in a Nissan Maxima and, instead of turning onto Washington Square North, plowed into a small Smart Car a police officer was sitting in under the Washington Square Arch.
The New York Post reported the driver was going very fast, “at highway speed,” and that the car slammed through metal barricades before hurtling into the mini cop car.
A witness told the tabloid that another officer who was on arch patrol initially pulled out a gun after the chaotic collision and ordered the driver, “Just stay on the ground!”
Cops have been guarding the historic marble arch since this summer after two vandals splattered its George Washington statues with red-paint balloons.
Although the Maxima was reportedly totaled in the crash, the arch was unscathed.
The officer in the Smart Car was removed on a stretcher and with a neck brace on.
The driver, 25, was arrested. The Post said the Nissan has been issued 11 tickets since 2018 — six of them for speeding in school zones in Queens.
5th Avenue south of 8th street is “local traffic only” and needs to be narrowed . The moving lane is currently 11 ft wide although 10 ft is more than enough for a box truck to use. There are other design solutions that can force drivers to slow down, speed hump is one of them, winding the road just like on University Pl between 14 and 13 street is another. In fact since the area sees so little car traffic it needs to be converted to a 5 MPH shared street.