NEW YORK, Passersby rush to lift minivan, free trapped Staten Island motorcyclist

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http://www.silive.com/southshore/index.ssf/2010/11/staten_island_samaritans_lift.htmlPassersby rush to lift minivan, free trapped Staten Island motorcyclist Published: Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 12:53 AM Updated: Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 6:51 AM John M. Annese Follow Share this story Story tools
Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimoA police officer keeps watch over a badly damaged motorcycle on Woodrow Road. Oscar Toloza, 27, of Charleston, was injured and in critical condition after his machine collided with an SUV. 0 Share 0 Comments STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Four Good Samaritans sprang into action yesterday afternoon at the scene of a horrendous accident in Woodrow, lifting a parked minivan to free a gravely injured motorcyclist.
“It was adrenaline,” said Jason Newman, 18, who stopped his car and ran to the rescue.
The motorcyclist, Oscar Toloza, 27, of Charleston, was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, in critical condition, police said. His injuries are described as life-threatening.
The crash happened about 2 p.m. on Woodrow Road at Dexter Avenue.
Newman said he was traveling on Woodrow Road and watched the accident unfold.
Toloza, he said, was bound toward Bloomingdale Road on Woodrow — not far from his Darnell Lane home — aboard his Suzuki Hayabusa when he collided with an SUV whose driver was turning from Dexter Avenue.
Toloza bounced off the right side of the Santa Fe and was launched from the bike; he landed underneath a parked minivan.
“He just flew off,” said Newman, a College of Staten Island student who lives in Rossville. “He was completely unconscious.”
Newman turned his car around, went to Toloza and checked his pulse.
“I got under the , started speaking to him,” he said. “He didn’t respond.”
An NYPD spokesman confirmed Newman’s account and said the driver of the SUV was a 63-year-old-man; the driver, who was not identified by police, declined to speak to an Advance reporter at the scene. He did not appear to be seriously injured.
Neighbor Lisa Pace noted Toloza was wearing a helmet.
She described the intersection of Woodrow and Dexter as a constant scene for accidents day and night.
The crash came the same day on which health and transportation officials released a report focusing on the number of traffic fatalities in the city over the past five years.
The report found that motorcyclists are killed in disproportionate numbers: They constituted 11 percent of crash fatalities from 2005 to 2009 even though motorcycles account for just 2 percent of the city’s motor vehicle registrations.
The city Department of Health described traffic crashes as “a leading cause of injury-related death and hospitalization for many New Yorkers, including child and older-adult pedestrians and young adult drivers.”
Still, the report states, the city’s traffic-fatality rate is just a quarter of the national average, and has actually declined at twice the national rate in recent decades.