SUV smashes into Spring Valley library, pins teen inside

SPRING VALLEY – A sport-utility vehicle ran over a 15-year-old girl and injured four other pedestrians Tuesday after smashing through the front entrance of the Finkelstein Memorial Library, setting off a chaotic scene as rescuers rushed to help the victims.

The driver, said to be a man in his late 50s to early 60s, told police mechanical trouble caused him to lose control of his Toyota RAV4 before striking the girl, who was pinned beneath the SUV inside the building, police said.

"She had to be rescued by the fire department and EMS personnel putting the airbags under the car to lift the vehicle off of her," Spring Valley police Lt. Jack Bosworth said. "We have other people who were injured. ... We did have a STAT Flight on standby. It turned out we didn't need them."

Bosworth initially said the girl appeared to have suffered at least a broken leg. Police later described her injuries as "serious."

Another of the victims, an adult woman, was said to have suffered a head injury that bled heavily. The driver experienced some chest pain after the crash, police said.

Bosworth could not describe the injuries suffered by the remaining pedestrians, who varied in age, but said they all appeared non-life-threatening.

Two of the injured were taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla by Hatzolah Ambulance. The others were taken to Nyack and Good Samaritan hospitals by Rockland Paramedic Services and Spring Hill Ambulance.

Emergency responders raced around the scene, calling into the crowd for anyone who may have been injured and trying to help others get their cars out of the parking lot. Scores of people, many visibly shaken children, watched paramedics move one of the victims into an ambulance shortly after 8 p.m.

Joseph Duque, 12, was inside the library at 7:43 p.m., when the car plowed through the busy parking lot, between two sturdy concrete barriers and through the metal-framed glass doorway.

"I heard the crash and saw everybody running," Joseph said. "I saw a lady with blood (on her face)."

Bosworth estimated at least 50 people were inside the library at the time of the crash and said police were able to evacuate the building without incident, using emergency and other exits at the side and rear of the brick structure.

Library Director Tracy Allen said the damage was extensive.

"There's glass in the children's room. Half of the circulation desk is gone. … It's just pretty nasty," she said.

She said the library would be closed Wednesday, but was hopeful that opening Thursday would be possible, using an older entrance on Madison Avenue.

"It's pretty bad," she said, "but it looks like there won't be any fatalities, so that's a blessing."

As the scene gradually grew calmer and the large crowd of onlookers began to disperse, the dark-colored SUV remained about 20 feet inside the building.

A Rockland County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Investigations unit was aiding Spring Valley police in the investigation, taking pictures near the vehicle. Bosworth said the building had been deemed "uninhabitable" because of numerous wires left exposed after the crash.

Despite the driver's assertions, the official cause of the incident remained under investigation.

"What the driver is saying is that he believes a recall on the car may have had something to do with this as far as the mechanical failure on the vehicle," Bosworth said. "We're going to look at all aspects of that."

How fast the car was traveling was not yet clear. Bosworth said alcohol did not initially appear to have been a factor in the crash.

Volunteers from the Spring Valley Fire Department responded to the scene along with Clarkstown police, which aided in crowd control and evacuating the library's parking lot.

The library, which was founded in 1917, serves more than 100,000 people in the East Ramapo Central School District. It has a collection of nearly 400,000 items and a circulation of almost 783,000 items per year. Its website describes the library as one of the most heavily used ones in the region, with more than 460,000 visitors annually.

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