Breaking Carnage: Driver on Sidewalk at Court and Degraw

This just in from Streetsblog contributor Laura Conaway:

Bystanders said a driver, an older woman, had a stroke while behind the wheel and hit several cars. She was traveling south on Court Street and hit her first car, so far as I could tell, at the corner of Degraw Street.

This happened minutes before 8 a.m. I had just stepped out of the house to buy a loaf of bread on that corner. Apparently the police were able to stop her right after it happened, but the whole scene was straight out of Jane Jacobs, with people racing out of stores to help.

On my way to the store, I happened to see an older gentleman walking a dog -- recognized them both, just people from the neighborhood. That's his dog, Muffin, lying dead under a brown towel, in the picture.

Looked like the original driver, the one with the stroke, rear-ended this red car, which then went up on the curb near a very popular coffee shop, D'Amico's. Ten minutes later and coffee-drinkers would have lined that stretch of sidewalk.

The car was stopped a block away.

Note: A pedestrian may have been struck by one of the vehicles involved. This has not been confirmed.