SUV smashes into Brooklyn Heights building

May 7, 2012 By Mary Frost
Photo by Mary Frost
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A green Ford SUV smashed through a construction shed and into the the Henry Street side of 98 Remsen St. Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m., collapsing the scaffolding and caving in a section of the brick wall. No one was injured.

Residents of the stricken building rushed out onto the sidewalk as FDNY and NYPD closed Henry Street between Hunts Lane and Remsen Street for fear of collapse.

“It sounded like a truck backing up,” said Karen (who asked her last name not be used), a resident of one of the garden apartments at 98 Remsen St. Of her neighbors closer to the hit, she said, “It must have been scary for the ladies in that apartment.”

An NYPD officer at the scene said that the driver was apparently attempting to shift gears while backing up and hit the accelerator instead. One of several people who emerged from the vehicle told the Eagle, “I have nothing to say.”

FDNY’s Daniel Gonzalez of Engine Co. 205 said at the scene that the Office of Emergency Management was called in to assess damage to the scaffold and the wall.

“Once they’ve shored up the scaffold they’ll assess the damage to the building and see if the back is compromised as a secondary egress. If it’s compromised, they’ll have to close that apartment,” Gonzalez said.

On Monday the city’s Department of Buildings issued a partial vacate order — to vacate the rear yard — and a violation.

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