A woman’s 19th birthday ended in tragedy Friday night when the car carrying her and four friends plunged into Steinway Creek in Queens — killing her and three of her pals, police sources said.
The 20-year-old driver escaped the Honda Accord and called 911, but his four passengers — two men aged 20 and 21 plus the birthday girl and another woman — all died after rescue divers pulled them from the submerged car.
“The guy couldn’t stop and the car flipped into the creek,” a law enforcement source said.
The car crashed through a chain-link fence and fell about 15 feet into the water from an industrial area near 19th Avenue and 37th Street in Astoria at about 10:40 p.m. on a foggy night and was completely submerged as cops and firefighters rushed to the scene.
The scuba divers had to break open the windows of the car — which the driver borrowed from his grandmother — to rescue the people inside, the source said.
The driver and passengers were at Buffalo Wild Wings in Queens celebrating a birthday party before they went into the water, not far from a city wastewater treatment plant and the Rikers Island bridge, police sources said.
Neighbors noted the street doesn’t have a “Dead End” sign that would have warned the driver.
Ok there's some things here that don't make sense. Buffalo Wild Wings is in Forest Hills on Continental Avenue near Austin Street. How and why did the car end up on 19th Ave in Astoria?
Also, why did all the media outlets refer to this location as "Steinway Creek"? It's name is Luyster Creek.
And then it gets even worse...
An SUV overturned into the East River early Saturday morning in Astoria just blocks from where four friends lost their lives when their car plunged into the Steinway Creek hours before, authorities said.
The SUV was apparently driving north on 20 Ave around 4 a.m. when it ran through a brick wall and a chain link fence and overturned into a waist deep inlet of the East River where the street abruptly stops at Shore Blvd., witnesses and authorities said.
Neighbor Yvett Kasanakis, 48, a bridge painter, helped the four passengers out of the murky waist-deep water. All four suffered minor injuries, one was treated at Mt. Sinai and one was brought to New York Queens Hospital, fire sources said.
FDNY divers did not find any other passengers in vehicle.
The shivering twenty-somethings told Kasanakis they were leaving a nearby club and heading to Neptune Diner when the crash occurred. They also told the Good Samaritan that the driver, who they claimed to have just met, had fled after the accident.
35 comments:
What a horrible way to go, in that stinky water. What were they dong there of all places? Drugs, probably.
As the media is made up primarily of transplants looking to make it in NYC journalism, we often find that they don't give a crap about being accurate. They don't know the names of communities within NYC or where they are located, so it's no surprise when they come up with "Steinway Creek". "Oh, it's near the Steinway factory, so that's what we'll go with."
From the article cited:
"The creek opens up into Bowery Bay, which allows mariners and barge traffic easy access to Flushing Creek, the East River, or the Long Island Sound. Calling it Luyster is an affectation, for the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th it was Steinway Creek, or Steinway Canal.
William Steinway bought the surrounding property in 1870, as historian Jeffrey A. Kroessler informs.
The Steinway used to float logs of mahogany and other valuable feedstock through here, which would be fed into the mill and used in the manufacture of their eponymous pianos."
They probably got the Steinway Creek name from Google Maps as that is what comes up when you search that area.
In both cases, the cars must have been going damn fast to get through all the obstacles between the road and the water.
Yes, and this is the 21st Century. It's been called Luyster Creek since everyone's grandparents were born. It's officially Luyster Creek here and here and here. No one alive today would know it as anything but Luyster Creek.
Consulting Jeff Kroessler on history is like consulting Jack Eichenbaum on preservation.
Most journalists don't have a clue about city geography outside midtown.
I've seen stories and photos taken in Sunnyside that say in Astoria.
I can top that one. They've reported from Queens Village and called it Middle Village. Those two towns are nowhere near each other and are about as different as can be.
Internet search:
77,000 hits for Luyster Creek.
3.78 million hits for Steinway Creek.
At least they made it past the QUeens borough bridge Evel Knievel turbo speed ramp.
Actually, it's more like 110,000 for Steinway Creek, thanks in large part to the fact that multiple media sources erroneously copied the same articles about this incident that contain the wrong name. And most of the rest of the hits have to do with Steinway Walnut Creek in California. That was a nice try, though.
They also told the Good Samaritan that the driver, who they claimed to have just met, had fled after the accident. Lies ! DWI anyone ?
A few things from someone that passed by there shortly after it happened (I was there before they got the kids out - and that was 20 minutes after it went in the water).
It was raining last night. Visibility was shit. So far as I know the 'dead end' sign on that street disappeared long ago and was never replaced.
The driver was probably distracted. 5 youths in a car coming home from a party = distracted driving.
19th ave is a straight shot with no traffic lights west of Rikers Island Bridge - which is probably a mile away. People zip along this street ALL THE TIME. This lack of traffic lights isn't so much the problem (there's 2 or 3 stop signs along the way) - what is the problem is that unless you're familiar with the area - the street looks like it just keeps on going. Again: no dead end sign. Absolutely no warning to those who aren't familiar with the area that the street very abruptly ends.
At the very end, there was a tiny barrier that DID NOT block the entire end of the street. It barely blocked 1/4th of it.
In dark rainy conditions like there were last night, a driver unfamiliar with the area could easily drive right into the creek, especially if distracted. That is exactly what happened.
This was an accident waiting to happen.
Complain to the city? People did. Was anything done? Nope.
At a minimum that street should have had a Dead End sign, 2 or 3 speed bumps, and a proper barrier and more large DEAD END signs at the end.
This said, maybe the DOT should do their job and fix problem streets like this one. That street has never had proper signage or barriers. Yes no one should be distracted while driving, but no signs? No barriers? Are you kidding me?
I passed by this afternoon. Of course there's a DOT crew down there right now cleaning up the scene, probably trying to cover the city's ass from the lawsuits that will surely follow.
The kid was in the midst of pulling a u turn when this happened, according to a report I read.
Oh - and to answer this:
"Ok there's some things here that don't make sense. Buffalo Wild Wings is in Forest Hills on Continental Avenue near Austin Street. How and why did the car end up on 19th Ave in Astoria? "
They probably got off the grand central at 82nd and took this route to astoria. It's the least trafficked route and a safe quiet one if you know where you're going. I do this all the time because the 31st exit on the GCP is often a traffic clogged mess with a dangerous merge that the city refuses to fix. (I'm assuming someone in the car lived around here and was to be dropped off).
As for the bad reporting - I really don't know what is with the seriously wrong information in some of those articles. It was very clear that no one else was getting out of that car alive. It was at least 20-30 minutes before they got them out. There were a few stringer reporters already there. No ambulances had left. It was pretty obvious no one else was coming out alive.
Just got back from the scene. (3:00PM) There are now low concrete barriers stretching from left to right. Completely different from the photo on this post. One of the fathers of a drowned girl was there wandering about looking for "evidence". I told him he needed a lawyer.
This area really needs a cleaning-up and historical designation. The Steinway Mansion nearby would be the keystone to the whole idea. Constantinides you reading this?
Maybe. If that's the case maybe his foot hit the gas too hard. A barrier, of course, would have prevented it from going into the creek... but hey why have such safety features when we can have more unused bike lanes?
OK....let's see How many facts come out about How fast this young man was driving when the car went into the water.
The DOT is responsibly for babysitting every idiot who doesn't want to take seriously the responsibility that comes with driving a car now? That's the logic that leads to not punishing all those drivers that take turns at speed and hit innocent pedestrians crossing the street in the crosswalk with the light. This driver should be tried for the death of his friends. He belongs in prison, and never again behind the wheel of a car.
"They probably got off the grand central at 82nd and took this route to astoria. It's the least trafficked route and a safe quiet one if you know where you're going. I do this all the time because the 31st exit on the GCP is often a traffic clogged mess with a dangerous merge that the city refuses to fix. (I'm assuming someone in the car lived around here and was to be dropped off)."
According to more recent reports, they all lived on 93rd Street in East Elmhurst. So ending up over here makes no sense, and even their relatives don't understand it.
"and then it gets even worse"
Worse that 4 dying?
Yes, there was a second incident.
DOT was too busy making sure all the bike lanes had fresh paint and the bike lane signs are all posted around the city than to worry about a silly dead end sign that applies to drivers.
The driver may be somewhat at fault but the city is liable for this one. It is their job to keep signs posted and they failed to in this case.
It amazes me how many signs are missing once you look around. Unless someone complains signs stay missing for years. I guess DOT is just too busy with the whole bike thing to inspect the signs. I'm really surprised this doesn't happen more often.
The new signs they install there for the dead end will be plowed down by an idiot truck driver in a few months, no one will say anything, DOT won't check it, and we will be back to square one again.
"So ending up over here makes no sense"
--Likely went looking to pickup or smoke some grass and something went very wrong.
Maybe they were just going down to Astoria Park along Shore Blvd. The views there at night are fantastic.
where is the great peter vallone jr ? sleeping on the job for the last 12 years ? his father, twenty more years ? no stop signs ?
Both cars were going fast enough to break through walls, fences, and steel barriers. If you put a concrete barrier there, it will only move the fatalities a few feet away from the water. They will die from the impact with the concrete barrier.
Vallone and Gianaris killed any attempt at sprucing this area up in favor of their home boys.
Remember FedEx tempest in a teapot and millions spent on sports fields for a handful of home boys kids?
The good news is the local talent is pretty inept.
Look at that stalled apartment building that is a West Nile mosquito breeding ground, all those power plants the politicians accepted from Manhattan and that sewage plant that lil Pete claims is in Randalls Island.
Remember the press conference on a strip club in the middle of nowhere (bad for our youth!) while a few feet away they were totally oblivious that there is nothing between the street and a canal that any kid could (and did) fall into?
And that news about a supposed contract for the mansion is a cover as they stumble around to get funding in and the right groups lined up to keep the boys in control.
Boy are they going to be surprised, just you wait 'n see!
Big changes coming to Steinway!
The driver, the city, and the bar or party-giver will all be sued. This will cost millions times 4.
Here we go, from today's NY Post:
The driver and lone survivor in Friday night’s Steinway Creek death plunge in Astoria, Queens, told cops he was going 60 mph moments beforehand — in an apparent stunt gone wrong, investigators told The Post.
“He said he was doing about 60,” one source said Saturday of the traumatized driver, Andrew Gramm.
“He said he was going fast and planning to make a U-turn” so that he could spin out at the end of the dead end, the source said.
Gramm, 20, blew past two signs reading “Dead End,” and then barreled through the windswept rain down the dark block where 19th Avenue meets the creek’s embankment.
But as he tried to make his U-turn, the car struck the curb and he lost control, sources said.
The car then either skidded on its side into the creek, or went airborne directly into the water, sources said.
The car landed upside down, sinking immediately. Unable to escape, the victims drowned in water only 8 feet deep.
When Simotas did the protest against the strip club while ignoring this accident waiting to happen around the corner I always think that a pol's stated reason for 'civic activism' - say improving transportation, or as in this case protecting youth - is always a cover for the real reason - protecting a developer's investment.
In this case, a group associated with Kaufman Studios (what DID they do to the 'Astoria' name?) is running a large building next door to the strip club.
Once again, the neglect of this area can be attributed to the neglect the politicians have shown to the entire Steinway complex.
Lil Pete is spreading all the rumors he can that the area will be ripe for investment and the factory will move making his cronies rich.
After all, who gives two shits about the name 'Steinway' when your appreciation of culture runs to the bottle bar scene.
Fat chance, sonny.
If I were you, I would buy some property up in Albany cause your future in Queens is ov-a!
I think the trick is to not drive if you can't see where you are going.
Yes. Roads adjacent to the water need to be better marked and have better barriers.
But the 20-year-old who borrowed Grandma's Honda had seen one too many "Fast and Furious" movies, and any way you look at it, a U-turn spinout at 60 MPH is certainly going to end with a disaster. It's closer to suicide/homicide than a accident.
What do the local political hacks have to say about this topical issue?
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