Woman and Child Crushed by Falling Gate

A woman and child were in serious condition after being hit by a store’s security gate on Fifth Avenue and President Street on Thursday.

According to an FDNY spokesman, a 50-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk with a 2-and-a-half-year-old child in front of the Fifth Avenue Cat Clinic at around 4:15 p.m. when the entire roll down gate, including its frame, fell from the veterinarian’s façade and hit the woman and kid.

The gate fell and hit the woman in the head and the child’s leg was crushed. Both of the victims are in serious condition and were rushed to Lutheran Medical Center, the FDNY spokesman said.

An eyewitness, who was standing in front of Dizzy’s across Fifth Avenue, said she saw the entire accident happen.

“All you heard was ba-boom! Then I saw the woman get cracked on the head and the little boy fell down with her and the gate crushed his leg,” said Christine Castellano, who was walking her dog while the security gate fell. “His leg was crushed. His foot was pointing to the right and his leg above the ankle was pushed to the left.”

Castellano said that the gate “came right off the wall” and “came flying down” on top of the woman and boy, who she said were not related for the woman was yelling for someone to call his mother. She said that the woman, who was drifting in and out of consciousness, had blood running down her face and the boy was relatively calm, but was calling for his mother.

She said as soon as it happened everyone came running to help. A nurse, who was walking past, aided the two victims and helped the woman lie flat, “to help the blood stop squirting out of her head.”

An employee of the restaurant next to the clinic, Lotus, said she heard the gate crash twice in 30 seconds and then heard a woman and baby screaming.

“I was lucky, I just walked past that gate an hour ago,” Joyce Li said.

The city's Office of Emergency Management was on the scene to investigate what caused the security gate to suddenly fall. 

This article was updated on Friday to correct the boy's age. 

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