The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

According to NY Newsday yesterday, a stunt man slammed a Ferrari into a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Times Square, wounding two pedestrians. This happened at 1 a.m. Monday morning. The stunt man, one Jeremy Eugene Fry, skidded on the wet street, knocked over a lamp post, collided with a newspaper box, and then crashed into the Sbarro's. While accomplishing all that, he injured a woman's foot and a homeless man's head. Perhaps.

But two witnesses have said that they saw the homeless man throw himself down on the ground just after the lamp post was hit and thought that he was faking his head injury. Both pedestrians were treated at Bellevue Medical Center.

All this was during a chase with the Ferrari and a Mercedes speeding down West 50th Street. According to police, they were supposed to go into a "power slide" on to 7th Avenue and then exit Times Square at West 46th Street.

A witness in his 15th floor hotel room said, "I saw the [Ferrari] fishtail and clip the pole with the back end of the car. And then I saw the pole fall."

Ferrari Part of a Movie Chase
The stunt man was acting for a Nicolas Cage film due to be released next year, called The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a poem by Goethe about an old sorcerer who leaves his apprentice alone for the day with chores to do. The apprentice casts a spell on a broom to fetch water for him and by the time the place is awash he realizes he doesn't know any spell to stop the broom. He chops it in half, but each half continues the work at double the speed.

This story was originally set to music by Paul Dukas, a 19th century French composer, and was used in the Walt Disney film Fantasia. Cage is making a liveaction version that will have the sorcerer hunting for his apprentice in modern-day New York.

Getting out of fantasy and back to our present-day reality, it is never safe to engage in a chase or race on the streets. It invites an accident. A driver will be held responsible for any injuries he might cause to a pedestrian, especially if his car is out of control, up on the sidewalk, and smashing into a restaurant.

If you have been injured as a pedestrian by a negligent driver, please contact our experienced auto accident attorneys for a free consultation.

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