Security and bystander videos ricocheting around social media this week show an SUV tearing into storefronts and scaffolding around the New York area, sending pedestrians scrambling and leaving several small businesses temporarily shuttered. The short clips, captured on surveillance systems and cellphones, have been woven into a national reel that local owners say is a harsh reminder of how quickly an ordinary sidewalk can turn into a crash scene.
New video package amplifies viral clips
A national video package aired this week by WFAA pulls together several of the viral moments, giving wider reach to footage that had already been bouncing around social platforms. The segments show SUVs hopping curbs, blowing through glass and slamming into ground-floor storefronts and pedestrian walkways.
Scenes captured in the Bronx and White Plains
Local outlets have traced at least two of the clips to specific crashes in the region. News 12 Bronx reported that one SUV jumped the sidewalk and smashed into a check-cashing business at Southern Boulevard and Longwood Avenue, injuring three people. In a separate incident in White Plains, an Acura MDX hit scaffolding near a Buffalo Wild Wings, and the solo driver, an 80-year-old man, was taken to a hospital in stable condition, according to News 12 Long Island.
Not an isolated fluke
The latest clips land on top of a string of similar collisions around the area. CBS New York has shown video of an SUV that slammed into a building and forced more than a dozen Long Island businesses to close temporarily. And the January ramming of the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn has highlighted broader concerns among officials about vehicles striking fixed sites, according to AP.
What police say and what is next
Police statements cited in local reports say investigators are looking at whether driver error or mechanical failure played a role in the White Plains crash, while detectives in the Bronx are gathering surveillance footage and witness accounts to piece together what happened there. So far, officials have not announced any criminal charges, and several damaged storefronts are still closed while building and safety inspections play out.
