A runaway car jumped a curb and careened into a crowded park in Manhattan, crushing benches and sending people flying. Four people were killed and at least 27 were injured.
Authorities were investigating whether the car that tore through Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village on Thursday had a faulty acceleration system. The car model, a 1987 Oldsmobile Delta 88, has been the subject of a federal safety probe into possible accelerator defects."People were flipping in the air, one after the other, as the car hit them in the first 50 yards," said Bill Meade, 30, a New York University graduate student. "And then it just kept going. Some people were hit so hard they were taken out of their shoes."
Bystanders lifted the car to free two people pinned underneath.
The driver, Stella G. Maychick, 74, was slightly injured. Police Capt. Donald Kelly said she won't be charged.
Deputy Police Commissioner Suzanne Trazoff said Maychick told authorities she slid behind the wheel of the car after dropping off her daughter, who had been driving. Then she touched the gas and the car "started to race."
"She was wide-eyed" after the accident, said Gita Ramani of Manhattan. "She was saying, `I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop.' "
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1987 began a two-year investigation of 703,000 GM cars, including the 1986-87 Oldsmobile Delta 88, after receiving more than 500 complaints about sudden acceleration.