driver

Car Slams Into Furniture Store in Queens, 3 Hurt: Officials

Jarring surveillance video shows the car barreling into the store at what appears to be near full speed; it also captures the moment of impact

A car jumped the curb and slammed into a furniture store in Queens early Thursday, injuring a man and two women, one of whom is not expected to survive, officials say. Tracie Strahan with the latest.

What to Know

  • A car crashed into a furniture store in Queens early Thursday, officials say
  • The silver Honda Accord crashed into Salco Furniture on Liberty Avenue, near 122nd Street, in Richmond Hill, injuring at least people
  • Police are looking into whether speed was a factor in the crash; the investigation is ongoing

A car jumped the curb and slammed into a furniture store in Queens early Thursday, injuring a man and two women, one of whom is not expected to survive, officials say.

Terrifying surveillance video shows the silver Honda Accord ram into Salco Furniture on Liberty Avenue, near 122nd Street, in Richmond Hill around 2:30 a.m. The footage shows the car barreling into the store at what appears to be near full speed. The impact is so strong it sends the back of the vehicle flying up into the air as smoke and flames spew from the front and undercarriage.

Jarring surveillance video shows the car barreling into the store at what appears to be near full speed. The impact is so strong it sends the back of the car flying up into the air as smoke and what looks like fire spew from the front.

Stunned witnesses who heard the crash and saw the aftermath said they knew every moment counted -- and they watched emergency crews break windows in a desperate effort to get the victims out. 

The driver, a 25-year-old woman, was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. Two passengers, a 41-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman, were also taken to the hospital but are expected to survive.

Footage from the scene showed the front of the vehicle crumpled like an accordion. At least one exploded airbag was visible. 

AL ROJO VIVO
NBC Bay Area
Minimum Wage Increase (NY) n
nFor workplaces with 11 employees or more in New York City minimum wage will increase to $15. $13.50 in New York City for workplaces with 10 or less employees. $12.75 for fast-food workers. $12 on Long Island and Westchester and $11.10 for the rest of New York State.
Getty Images
Pharmacies Can’t Sell Cigarettes (NYC) n
nNew York City pharmacies won't be allowed to sell cigarettes or other tobacco products. The ban will also include business that contain pharmacies such as big box stores and supermarkets.
Styrofoam Ban for Businesses (NYC) n
nNew York City food-service businesses and stores can no longer offer, sell, or own Styrofoam food containers such as foam takeout clamshells, cups, plates, bowls, trays, and packing peanuts.
Pexels/CC
Parental Leave Benefits (NY) n
nEligible employees can take 10 weeks with their new children, care for a sick family member or help loved ones when a family is deployed abroad an active military service. Wage replacement increased to 55 percent, up from 50 percent in 2018.
Getty Images
Smoking Ban (NJ) n
nSmoking at the state’s public beaches and parks will be banned. Local communities can opt out and designate small smoking sections. The law also bans vaping but allows towns to set up smoking areas on 15 percent of any given beach or park. The law takes effect Jan.16.
Getty Images
Health Insurance Mandate (NJ) n
nNew Jersey will require residents to have health coverage or pay a penalty fee. Residents will face a penalty of 2.5 percent of income or $695 per taxpayer, whichever is greater. A family’s maximum penalty is $2,085.The legislation was in response to a 2017 federal tax overhaul that wiped out the Affordable Care Act’s mandate to carry insurance.
Gun Violence Protective Order (NJ) n
nThis will allow state courts to issue a protective order when someone poses a “significant risk of personal injury” to themselves or others. This law will potentially make it easier to take a firearm away from someone who is a danger to themselves or others.
Getty Images
Transgender Birth Certificates (NJ/NYC) n
nIt will now be easier for New Jersey and New York City transgender residents to change their genders on their birth certificate. The new law allows residents to amend certificates based on how they identify themselves. Parents of newborns will also be able to choose “X” by confirming it reflects their true gender identity.
Getty Images/Blend Images
Diaper Changing Station (NYC) n
nNew York City employers must provide diaper changing stations in public buildings such as bowling alleys, museums, theaters, and spaces where products are being sold. Changing stations and will be available to everyone, regardless of gender.
NBC Bay Area
Lactation Rooms (NYC) n
nEmployers in New York City will be required to provide a lactation room for employees for purposes of expressing milk. It must be a sanitary place other than a restroom.
Sexual Harassment Policy (NY) n
nAll New York employees will be required to complete a sexual harassment prevention training. This will occur on an annual basis. State contractors must submit a statement that they have a sexual harassment policy and have provided training to all their employees.
NBC Washington
Uber/Lyft Taxes (NJ) n
nRides beginning and ending within New Jersey will have a 50-cent tax on solo trips and 25 cents on shared rides. The money collected from the fee will be used to help with school districts.
Getty
Airbnb Taxes (NJ) n
nAirbnb users will have to pay the same taxes and fees that hotels and motels are currently required to pay to the state for temporary housing. Under the bill, permanent residential rentals would continue to be exempt from these taxes.
NBCConnecticut.com
School Bus Safety (NJ) n
nSix new bills on school bus safety has been passed. Under these new laws, parents will be able to send their children to school knowing that school buses and drivers are being held to “extremely high standards to ensure safety of the students”.
Shutterstock/VonaUA
Drug Take Back (NY) n
nDrug stores and mail order pharmacies will allow consumers to return unused prescriptions drugs through secure options such as free drop boxes or prepaid envelopes.
NBC10
Disability Benefits for Volunteer Firefighters with Cancer (NY) n
nVolunteer firefighters with certain types of cancer will be eligible for state disability coverage. Volunteer firefighters who have served for at least five years will qualify.
NBC
Body Scanners in Prison (NY) n
nBody scanners will be allowed to be used on inmates to detect any hidden weapons. Some hidden weapons have been found on a prisoners body or clothing.
Getty Images, File
No Cost for Prostate Screenings (NY) n
nHealth insurers are required to provide men with prostate cancer screening at no cost. Health insurance plans are required to make consumers aware of the new benefit.
Applicant Wage and Salary Ban (CT) n
nConnecticut bans employers from asking their prospective employees about their past wage and salary history unless the prospective employee volunteers the information. This law has been passed in effort to prevent pay inequities especially to women and people of color.

A friend of one of the victims told News 4 described the male passenger as an "amazing guy." She said she didn't know the woman driving. 

Video shows FDNY officials on the scene and shows the store's metal gate damaged as well as broken windows. 

Police are looking into whether speed was a factor in the crash. Roads were also fairly slippery at the time, authorities say. The Department of Buildings says the masonry at the front of the furniture store and at the front of an adjacent building were damaged, but inspectors deemed both structures stable.

Danielle Misiak
A 30-40 foot tree falls in backyard of a Short Hills, New Jersey home, narrowly missing the guest house by only inches during one of the four nor'easters to cripple the tri-state last winter. Read more
Cristian Vergel
Crowds swell at Port Authority Bus Terminal after officials closed part of the station as the season's first snowstorm on the year, also called "Snowvember," crippled the tri-state in November. Read more
Christopher Thiele
A student and a teacher at East Brook Middle School in Paramus died after the bus they were riding in on their way to a field trip crashed in Mount Olive Township, ripping off the undercarriage and leaving it completely demolished. Read more
Getty/News 4
Fashion icon Kate Spade was found dead of an apparent suicide in her Manhattan home back in June; she was 55 years old. Read more
Grace Mullarkey
Celebrity chef and world-traveling CNN host Anthony Bourdain died of a suicide at 61 in June. Read more
A Florida man was accused this year of mailing these pipe bombs to top Democrats, such as the Clintons, Barack Obama, CNN and other critics of President Trump. Read more
News 4
An 86-year-old steam pipe exploded in the Flatiron District, forcing the evacuation of more than four dozen buildings and creating a 15-foot gaping crater in the ground. Read more
News 4
MMA star Conor Mcgregor was arrested in April after he was involved in a backstage melee after a news conference for UFC223, one of the biggest cards of the year. Read more
Actor Alec Baldwin walks out of an NYPD station house after he was arrested in November for allegedly assaulting a man in Greenwich Village over a parking space. Read more
News 4
A mother of two died after being partially sucked out of a Southwest Airlines depressurized cabin after the jet blew an engine, sending shrapnel shooting through the window. Read more
Courtesy of WNYT
Back in October, a limousine carrying four sisters, other relatives and friends to a birthday celebration blew through a stop sign and slammed into a parked SUV outside a store in upstate New York, killing all 18 people in the limo and two pedestrians. Read more
News 4 / Handout
Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, also known as Junior, was dragged out of a Bronx bodega by a group of alleged gang members and killed in a brutal stabbing that officials described as a case of mistaken identity. Read more
Sion Fullana / FDNY
Michael R. Davidson, a 37-year-old decorated FDNY firefighter and father of four young children, died back in a March when a fire erupted in a Harlem apartment building where a star-studded movie directed by Edward Norton had a shoot. Read more
News 4 / Provided
A boy and a girl were bitten by sharks in separate attacks off Fire Island in July. Uncommon in New York, since 1837, only 10 shark attacks have been reported in the Empire State. Read more
@PeterThomasRoth/Twitter
An art collector who knew Andy Warhol and had fallen on hard times died after a fire erupted in an apartment on the 50th floor of Trump Tower in Midtown back in April. Read more
News 4
Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, whose stage name is Ruthie Ann Miles, was seriously injured in a crash after a driver who had a medical episode gunned through a red light, hitting her and killing her young daughter and unborn child. Read more
@insert4coins
Margaret Reynolds, 67, a London toursit, was pierced by a flying beach umbrella on the Jersey Shore back in July. Read more
Getty Images / Jane Rosenberg
Allison Mack, best known for playing a young Superman's close friend, was arrested back in April and released on $5 million bail as she sought to cut a deal with prosecutors in an alleged sex cult case in which she's accused of acting as a slave "master" and recruiting unsuspecting women. Read more
Emily Serrano
A Manhattan lawyer buying lunch at a Midtown cafe threatened to call immigration enforcement on its workers — all because he heard them speaking Spanish. Read more
News 4 / Associated Press
A luxury jet carrying rapper Post Malone landed safely in New York, but it was hours after blowing two tires during takeoff at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Read more
News 4
A woman allegedly stabbed five people, including three baby girls no more than a month old, at a maternity center in Queens in September, and cops said they had found a butcher knife and meat cleaver at the scene. Read more
News 4 New York
A father was detained in June by ICE officials while he was delivering pizza to a military base in Brooklyn. Read more
Amazon made it official last month, announcing it is expanding its new headquarters to New York City. Read more
NBC 4 New York
Eleven children died at a New Jersey medical center as a result of a viral outbreak. Read more
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Harvey Weinstein is led out of the NYPD's First Precinct in handcuffs after being arrested and processed on charges of rape, committing a criminal sex act, sexual abuse and sexual misconduct on May 25, 2018 in New York City. Read more
Two Customs and Border Protection officers were indicted and another pleaded guilty in connection with allegations of extreme, sexually abusive hazing of colleagues at Newark Airport exposed in a bombshell I-Team investigation. Read more
Exit mobile version