Over the weekend, Greenpointers received several tips concerning a collision that occurred early in the morning on Saturday, February 19, at 73 Meserole Avenue. The incident involved an NYPD vehicle crashing into a vehicle parked on Meserole, the impact of which destroyed the staircase of an apartment building.
“Saturday morning at 4 AM, I was sleeping in my bed with my cat, and we both woke up to an abrupt crashing sound. It sounded like a truck dropped from the sky and fell on another truck,” Clare, a resident of the building, told Greenpointers. She asked that we use a pseudonym for safety reasons.
Clare thought it sounded weird, but didn’t think too much of it since her building is next to the post office, and she often hears loud noises coming from that area. She went back to sleep and woke up a few hours later, going about her usual Saturday morning routine until she heard a loud knock on her apartment door.
It was the Department of Buildings, who informed her that there had been a crash at the building. She had to vacate the premises immediately, as the crash destroyed the building’s stairs, rendering it unsafe.
“We weren’t really given any direction or anything – we were just told to get out. I packed my cat and grabbed my neighbors, and we got in the car and went to my mom’s house,” said Clare. “It was really crazy when we got outside because we saw that the stairs were just completely gone.”
“Left this morning and came back to a VACATE notice on the door tonight, and some half-built plywood steps. Building is inaccessible to tenants, [neither] me nor my roommates were contacted by my landlord, and we have gotten no info about the situation,” another resident of the building, who asked to remain anonymous, told Greenpointers on Saturday.
He has since told Greenpointers that the temporary stairs are now in place and the building is open again to tenants, but he still hasn’t gotten clarity about what happened.
Captain Kathleen Fahey of the 94th Precinct, where the incident occurred, provided this statement via email to Greenpointers:
“The collision occurred on Saturday, February 19th at 3:58 a.m. Two of my officers assigned to patrol were involved in a collision at the corner of Meserole Avenue and Guernsey Street while responding to a possible commercial burglary. As the officers traveled west on Meserole, the motorist on Guernsey did not stop for the stop sign. As a result, the vehicle driven by my officer collided with a parked vehicle and the staircase of the building located at 73 Meserole, causing the staircase to collapse. The airbags deployed and both officers were treated at the hospital for non life threatening injuries. No other injuries were reported. Department of Buildings issued a vacate order for the building due to unsafe egress. A summons was issued for Failure to Stop at a Stop sign.”