A Toyota Prius careened into scaffolding wrapped around a commercial building near West 31st Street and Dyer Avenue in Midtown early Sunday, leaving a 24-year-old driver and a 21-year-old passenger with minor injuries. Police say the driver failed to navigate the roadway before the vehicle slammed into the structure outside 450 West 31st Street, a nearly 112,000-square-foot property built back in 1918.
According to ABC7 New York, the Prius collided with the commercial building and tore into the scaffolding surrounding it. Police said the driver failed to navigate the roadway. Both the driver and passenger were taken to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries.
Citizen App video cited in the report showed the scene near West 31st Street and Dyer Avenue at around 2 a.m. Sunday, as emergency crews worked the crash site. No arrests had been made as of the report, and the investigation remains ongoing, per the same account.
A Century-Old Building Takes the Hit
The scaffolding damaged in the crash surrounds 450 West 31st Street, a commercial property dating to 1918 with roughly 112,146 square feet of space and 15 commercial units, according to PropertyShark. The real estate database lists the building's current market value at $19,964,000. Scaffolding is a near-constant fixture across blocks of Midtown Manhattan, where aging commercial stock routinely requires facade work and sidewalk protection sheds.
Not the First Scaffolding Collision Nearby
This is not the only recent case of a vehicle striking Midtown scaffolding. Back in September, a Tesla crashed into scaffolding elsewhere in Midtown, and FOX 5 New York reported that the passenger in that crash was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. In December 2025, a bus crashed into scaffolding elsewhere in Manhattan, sending one person to the hospital, as previously reported by ABC7 New York.
Drivers involved in crashes anywhere in the city are typically documented on form MV-104AN, the standard collision report New York police officers complete, according to NYC Open Data. Motorists seeking copies of official NYPD collision reports from incidents after September 30, 2016 can request them through the NYPD Collision Report Retrieval Portal, though access can take up to seven days.
No further details on the condition of the driver and passenger, the cause of the loss of control, or any potential charges have been released. The investigation into Sunday's crash remains active.
