An out-of-control vehicle slammed against a light pole at a Norwood commercial strip, spooking bystanders and leaving the 81-year-old driver in critical condition. Police believed the driver might have suffered some type of medical emergency, causing the accident.

Police and paramedics were called to the heavily congested intersection of Bainbridge Avenue and East 205^th Street on Feb. 25 after the out-of-control vehicle jumped the curb at the northeast corner and slammed into the corner pole.

Kirsis Lopez from the JSP Life Agency on East 204th Street was on the second floor having breakfast, when she heard, “a large crunching sound.”

Lopez recalled, “I knew it had to be a car accident because it sounded like metal crunching,” seconds before she believed the driver to have been traveling eastbound on Bainbridge Avenue, before losing control. The accident happened within the heart of Norwood’s Bainbridge-204^th Street commercial strip, home to some several dozen stores.

“There was a female passenger,” Lopez continued, “and her face was all bloodied.” Of the driver, Lopez said, “he appeared to be sick and wasn’t really moving.”

“We’re all amazed that there was no one at the corner, because people cross there for the bus stop,” said Lopez.

One area resident called it “a miracle” that no one was hit given the substantial foot traffic by school children and customers walking along the popular commercial strip.

The NYPD reports the unidentified driver was rushed to Montefiore Hospital and remains in critical but stable condition. His two female passengers were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where they were being treated for minor injuries.

Initial reports by the NYPD’s Crash Investigation Squad believed the driver “possibly lost control after a possible medical episode.”

In March 2013, Bedford Park resident Sook-Ja Kim was struck and killed as she walked along the pedestrian footpath at Mosholu Parkway after a still-unidentified 22-year-old driver suffered a similar medical emergency.

No charges in that crash were ever filed nor any citations issued to the driver. That crash was later deemed an accident.