NY Daily News

The impact threw one of the Bravest toward the sidewalk and jammed the other between the cab and the fire truck, seriously injuring both men. "There was the crash. There was a firefighter pinned. He was wailing. I had to plug my ears because I've never heard such suffering," said Jamie Maslyn, 36, a landscape architect.

The pinned firefighter, John Walters, 37, was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was in critical condition early this morning. His 41-year-old colleague, Mike Schunk, suffered a crushed leg and was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell. Both were expected to survive.
The stunned cab driver and his passenger were transported to St. Luke's Hospital for minor facial injuries, authorities said.

The horrific accident occurred shortly after the Rescue 1 rig double-parked along Columbus Ave. near W. 71st St. as the crew of about six picked up dinner at 10:30 p.m.

The two injured firefighters had bought a mozzarella burger and a cheeseburger at Big Nick's Too, then crossed the street to climb into their truck while some of their colleagues were picking up meals at nearby Harry's Burritos.

Witnesses said the cab, traveling south on Columbus, drove straight into the fire truck without braking, as though the driver didn't see the vehicle.

"He was standing at the rear of the truck, and the cab hit him straight on," Rachel Sokol, 26, a Web site editor, said of Walters. "It was scary. Oh, my God, so scary."

Other firefighters, who are specially trained to handle the most difficult rescues, ran over to aid their injured colleagues, witnesses said.

As the dazed cabbie and his passenger climbed out of the taxi, onlookers hollered, "Back up the cab! Back up the cab!" But the driver was too stunned to react. In the end, the firefighters had to move the truck to free Walters.

"Both of them were in here just before the crash," said Reaz Bhyiyan, 49, of Queens, a short-order cook at Big Nick's. "They come in three, four times a week. They're real nice guys. I just don't know what to think."

A colleague said Schunk and Walters were veteran members of the FDNY with more than 15 years on the job. Both had responded to the Sept. 11 attacks, he said.

"They're just good guys," said a former colleague of the injured men. "They're rescue guys. They're the guys who would go above and beyond."

The Police Department's accident investigation unit was on the scene.

"There wasn't one skid mark," a police source said. "He [the cabbie] may have been driving behind a larger vehicle and changed lanes to get around and ran smack into the parked vehicle."
The 55-year-old cabbie has a clean driving record, the source said.

At Rescue 1's firehouse at 530 W. 43rd St., grim-faced firefighters began to trickle in hours later. Asked how they were holding up, one replied, "Not good."

Rescue 5 from Staten Island came to cover for Rescue 1 after the crash.