Paging James Vacca: Curb-Jumper Injures Senior Citizen on 5th Ave Sidewalk

Can we get a James Vacca City Council hearing on this?

A man in his eighties was seriously injured today when an SUV driver jumped the curb and slammed into Saks Fifth Avenue in Midtown a little before 11 a.m. Gothamist reports that the victim was walking by the store at the time and was taken to Bellevue in stable condition.

Even though Fifth Avenue has some of the most crowded sidewalks in the Western Hemisphere, the driver who careened off the road was immediately exonerated by NYPD, who told Gothamist there’s “no criminality suspected.”

At least six pedestrians were killed by curb-jumping motorists in NYC last year. Those victims were all 58 years or older. Given the prevalence of traffic violence — more than 10,000 NYC pedestrians are hurt by motorists every year — it’s likely that hundreds of other New Yorkers were injured while on the sidewalk in 2012.

Thanks to reader Liz Patek for sending in the photo from the scene.