A garbage truck slammed into a deli in Bedford-Stuyvesant early this morning, injuring seven.
The crash came out of nowhere, one store employee said.
“I opened my eyes and there was the truck,” said Abdul Ali.
A commercial truck operated by privately owned Metropolitan Recycling was travelling toward Downtown on Dekalb Avenue at 2:15 am when a Volkswagen sedan traveling in the direction of the Williamsburg Bridge on Bedford Avenue apparently ran a red light, police said. The truck and the sedan collided, sending the waste-hauler into the side of the Gourmet Deli at 994 Bedford Ave., according to law enforcement sources.
Seven people were injured in the crash, three severely, though none of the injuries were considered life-threatening, Fire Department officials said. Emergency personnel transported the wounded to Kings County Hospital Center and Woodhull Medical Center, a department spokesman said.
The destruction left several wires hanging from the store’s facade, but apartments above the building did not lose power, a Department of Buildings worker said.
Store-owners completed renovations on the space just a year ago, said Ali, who remained at the site for at least 10 hours after the crash.
“We will fix it again,” he said.
Passing locals took a moment out of their day to give Ali and his coworkers their condolences.
“We say this is our store,” said Migdalia Hernandez, a Flatlands resident who works nearby. “We’ll come right back when they get themselves sorted out.”
Police are investigating the crash, but have not made any arrests, an NYPD spokesman said.
No one at Metropolitan Recycling was immediately available for comment, a receptionist said.
