Metro

Off-duty cop flies off bridge into crash-prone Queens storefront

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Queens cars crash
The scene of the crash on Tuesday near Queens Plaza.Demetrius Loadholt
The scene of the crash on Tuesday near Queens Plaza.Demetrius Loadholt
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Queens cars crash
A two car crash happened at the same location on May 14th, 2011.Seth Gottfried
Queens cars crash
Theodore Parisienne
Queens cars crash
Another car crashed into the same set of stores on April 6th, 2011.Theodore Parisienne
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Queens cars crash
This car crashed into the same spot as the other crashes on March 28th, 2011.Wayne Carrington
Queens cars crash
G.N. Miller
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An off-duty cop and mom of two was killed in a gruesome crash after her car careened off the 59th Street Bridge and into a storefront Tuesday – in the same spot where two others were killed in similar crashes just two years ago, the Post has learned.

Elisa Toro, 36 and a 10-year NYPD veteran, was heading into Queens just before 2 a.m. where her silver Ford Focus struck a guardrail on the exit ramp, causing her to lose control of the car, police said.

She slammed into a concrete barrier that separates the road from the sidewalk, sending the car airborne over the divider and throwing the car flying on its side into the Villa De Beaute salon storefront on Queens Plaza South, authorities said.

A DOT source at the scene said Toro was decapitated when her head smashed through her open driver’s window — adding that the crash was so horrific emergency workers had to slice open the car to extricate her.

A police source could not confirm the DOT account – and contended Toro was ejected from the car.

“It’s a particular tragedy for our department,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “There were cement barriers that were put up because there had been previous accidents with cars going up on the sidewalk. [She] struck the barrier.”

Toro, who works out of the 17th Precinct, which covers the east side of Midtown Manhattan, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kelly said Toro, a part time fitness instructor, leaves behind two sons, 17 and 13. Her Facebook page Tuesday was full of condolence messages and photos showing a beaming Toro with her family and in her NYPD uniform.

“My heart is broken,’’ Toro’s aunt posted on Facebook. “Sad day for my family, we lost a great woman today.’’

‘’I just don’t understand why this has happened…but Elisa, you will be missed. God has gotten another angel. I will miss that loving smile of yours.’’

The cop’s death is the third in a string at the cursed site, where residents and business owners have routinely complained about the dangerous traffic pattern and begged city officials to do something.

On March 28, 2011, drunken driver Grant Riddell’s car flew off of the same exit ramp and killed a pedestrian who was walking on the sidewalk. Riddell, who lost an arm in the accident, was later indicted on charges of drunken driving, vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and vehicular assault.

A week and a half later, on April 6, Beatriz Rodriguez, 40, lost control on the tricky ramp and crashed her Volkswagen Rabbit into the same two store fronts. She later died from her injuries.

In May, 2102, a taxi driver careened off the exit and plowed into scaffolding. Nobody was hurt.

After the back-to-back 2011 death crashes, the DOT changed the traffic patterns, installed rumble strips, put up more signs and erected the concrete barricades in an effort to improve safety.

But residents and business owners Tuesday said it’s not enough.

“There weren’t accidents like this before,’’ said one thirty-year resident of the neighborhood. ‘’Now we have three deaths in three years. There is a pattern here. It’s obvious that the new angle and the closing of one lane has created this. It’s just tragic that someone had to die.’’

Ron Shapiro, whose check-cashing store is two buildings away from the site where the three fatal crashes have occured, said speeding drivers don’t help the tricky street pattern.

“It’s sad someone lost their life,’’ he said. ‘’But you can’t come across the bridge at 70 to 80 miles an hour. They built all these dividers and reduced a lane and as soon as they did there was an accident six months later. It’s just going to keep happening”

“I am just in disbelief. It’s mind boggling that this is still happening,’’ said Scott Agulnick, the lawyer for the proprietors of two stores – Espinal Caribbean Restaurant II and Villa De Beaute – who are suing the city, DOT and others for about $1 million in damages after the crashes twice ruined their stores.

“The loss of business compares in comparison to the loss of lives,’’ Agulnick said, “but you think at some point the powers that be would realize something needs to be done.’’