A spectacular hit-and-run crash early Saturday morning in front of the Delavan/Canisius College Metro Rail Station prompted authorities to close the station for safety and structural reasons, after one car catapulted onto the station.
The vehicle landing perpendicular to the sidewalk, with only one rear wheel on the ground, while the front half was hanging inside the rail station, according to the Transit Authority Police report.
A crane later was used to lift the disabled vehicle off the side wall of the glass dome, after the driver fell from the car’s precarious perch and then fled on foot.
Transit police said that at about 3:30 a.m., a car driven by Roman A. Dunnigan, 33, of Amherst, struck an eastbound vehicle on West Delavan Avenue that had stopped at a red light and was attempting to turn left onto northbound Main Street.
Dunnigan’s car then crashed into the concrete curbing, went airborne and landed upright along the station’s shattered glass wall.
A witness saw a man fall out of that vehicle and run out of the station, police stated. Video footage from the Delavan Station showed the driver running up the escalator and fleeing.
Transit police officers went to Erie County Medical Center and found Dunnigan, who admitted that he was driving the vehicle that landed on the station, authorities said.
Dunnigan was charged with leaving the scene of a personal-injury accident, reckless driving, speeding, failure to keep right and unsafe passing, according to police reports.
Both he and the other driver, Ashley S. McNeal, 22, of Humboldt Parkway, were treated and released from ECMC.
C. Douglas Hartmayer, NFTA public affairs director, said the station, which suffered extensive structural damage, would reopen first thing Sunday morning.
“It will be closed until we can assess the damage and secure the building so it is a safe facility for our customers to use,” Hartmayer said earlier Saturday.
The NFTA is providing bus-shuttle service to and from that station, from both the Humboldt-Hospital and Utica stations, until it reopens, he added.
email: gwarner@buffnews.com
The vehicle landing perpendicular to the sidewalk, with only one rear wheel on the ground, while the front half was hanging inside the rail station, according to the Transit Authority Police report.
A crane later was used to lift the disabled vehicle off the side wall of the glass dome, after the driver fell from the car’s precarious perch and then fled on foot.
Transit police said that at about 3:30 a.m., a car driven by Roman A. Dunnigan, 33, of Amherst, struck an eastbound vehicle on West Delavan Avenue that had stopped at a red light and was attempting to turn left onto northbound Main Street.
Dunnigan’s car then crashed into the concrete curbing, went airborne and landed upright along the station’s shattered glass wall.
A witness saw a man fall out of that vehicle and run out of the station, police stated. Video footage from the Delavan Station showed the driver running up the escalator and fleeing.
Transit police officers went to Erie County Medical Center and found Dunnigan, who admitted that he was driving the vehicle that landed on the station, authorities said.
Dunnigan was charged with leaving the scene of a personal-injury accident, reckless driving, speeding, failure to keep right and unsafe passing, according to police reports.
Both he and the other driver, Ashley S. McNeal, 22, of Humboldt Parkway, were treated and released from ECMC.
C. Douglas Hartmayer, NFTA public affairs director, said the station, which suffered extensive structural damage, would reopen first thing Sunday morning.
“It will be closed until we can assess the damage and secure the building so it is a safe facility for our customers to use,” Hartmayer said earlier Saturday.
The NFTA is providing bus-shuttle service to and from that station, from both the Humboldt-Hospital and Utica stations, until it reopens, he added.
email: gwarner@buffnews.com