An SUV careened into a phone store on Long Island Monday, killing a 66-year-old customer sitting on a couch as she waited to be served and injuring two other people, authorities say.
Police said the woman who died, identified as Lizabeth Sbar of Great Neck, was seated on a couch near the storefront window at the AT&T on Northern Boulevard in Great Neck when the vehicle crashed through the class around 11 a.m., pinning her underneath it. Nearly a dozen bystanders lifted the SUV to free the woman.
"We tried to flip the car and it was pretty hard, but we managed to pull her out just enough from the car until the police arrived," said Ronan Eitan, who assisted in the effort.
Sbar was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead about two hours after the accident. A second customer and a store employee suffered minor injuries.
Police told Newsday the 65-year-old driver lost control of the vehicle as she tried to pull into a parking spot. She was not injured. Police said the crash appears to be accidental and no criminal charges are expected; investigators said the driver passed a field sobriety test at the scene.
Chopper 4 captured an extensive emergency presence at the store; yellow caution tape cordoned off the entrance to the store and the SUV was visible in the lobby. Police are impounding it for safety checks.
