NEW YORK — Two people were killed when a stolen out-of-control rental car vaulted onto a bustling Chinatown pedestrian island Saturday morning, police said.
One of the victims’ legs was severed during the blistering 7:30 a.m. crash at the corner of Bowery and Canal Street at the mouth of the Manhattan Bridge, police said.
One victim, a 63-year-old woman, was sitting on a metal bench before the car careened into her, witnesses said. The metal bench was ripped from the ground as the Chevrolet Malibu slammed into it.
The driver and passenger of the blue Malibu — two women in their early 20s — were taken into custody after they tried to leave the area on foot after the crash, police said.
A witness pointed them out to arriving police officers as they made their escape. Cops nabbed them about a block away from the scene, officials said.
The two women were taken to an area hospital for treatment of minor injuries as they were being questioned.
Witnesses told police that the Malibu had exited the Manhattan Bridge at a high rate of speed when the driver lost control and careened onto a a triangle-shaped pedestrian island at the corner, where it struck a 63-year-old woman sitting on the bench and a man in his 30s riding a bicycle.
The sedan then struck an unoccupied New York Police Department van parked by the crosswalk on the east side of Bowery before coming to a stop in the middle of the street, cops said.
The man and the woman died at the scene. Their names were not immediately disclosed.
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The bike one victim was riding was torn in half, witnesses said. Pieces of it remained scattered around the crash scene.
The Malibu, its doors wide open, remained at the scene Saturday morning, resting at an odd angle in the street outside a TD Bank about six feet from where the bench was uprooted.
The car had extensive front-end damage, and both airbags had deployed.
The car had been reported stolen from a rental company in Staten Island, police sources said. Whoever rented the vehicle never returned it, cops were told.
Criminal charges against the driver and passenger were pending Saturday.
The NYPD van the pair rear-ended was propelled across Bowery, coming to a stop in front of the New York Jewelers Exchange, officials said.
As of Thursday, 60 pedestrians had been killed by vehicles across the city this year — 10 fewer than the 70 who died by this time last year.
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