Don’t jog. Run!
A 25-year-old visiting Dutch student and her girlfriend are both lucky to be alive after an early morning jog in Park Slope turned into a run for their lives as an out of control minivan hurtled just inches behind them before crashing into a deli.
“We could have been killed. I heard the brakes squeal and there was a man [ahead of us] motioning and screaming ‘Move, Move’ so we ran faster, but I had no idea [what was going on] and then I saw it coming,” said the still shaking jogger, Caroline De Jong.
“I heard brakes and KA-BOOM!. Glass crashed everywhere. It is so scary.”
She and friend Daniela, watched the chilling video replay of their 6:15 a.m. brush with death from a store surveillance camera outside the Deli and Smoke Shop on 5th Avenue near 9th Street.
“Wow, that’s really scary,” she said, looking at herself in the pink jogging outfit, as the pair suddenly gained a life-saving burst of speed as the careening minivan at the last moment veered slightly to the right, shooting through the storefront window.
“I don’t want to jog in New York,” she said, “You see what happens when you go for a jog. Stuff like this happens.
“I just arrived on Friday and today we said ‘Let’s go for a simple jog’ We were both so shocked and scared we went right back home. But we went back to see if everyone was OK,” said De Jong.
The accident occurred when driver Swalha Saad, 43, who was going East on 9th Street in a blue Toyota allegedly blew a red light and hit the minivan driver Ali Joulee, 37, as he headed north on 5th Avenue, causing him to lose control, according to a witness.