(CNN) -- Fourteen people were hospitalized Thursday after an elderly man lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a Long Island building where a Hanukkah festival was under way, police told CNN.
Some of the injuries were severe, Nassau County Police Officer Patricia Tanksley said. Police said the 78-year-old man's vehicle crashed into a Woodmere, New York, storefront where Chabad of Five Towns was holding its Hanukkah Wonderland event.
Police said the driver, who hit a parked car before going through the storefront, is among the injured. There were no details available for the others.
Hospitals in the vicinity reported receiving adults and children, including two children listed in serious condition.
The event included menorah- and dreidel-making activities for children, according to the Chabad of Five Towns Web site.
Heshey Jacob, president of the Hatzolah Volunteer Emergency Medical Service, said the vehicle went through a play tent in the front of the building where children were playing and into the back of the store.
Thirteen victims were initially transported to hospitals, he said, including one medevaced to Nassau County Medical Center. Another child, traumatized by the accident, was taken to a hospital later.
Other than the driver, the injured range in age from 18 months to 40 years old, police said.
No criminal charges have been filed, police said.
"Our first priority at this time is to make sure that everyone is taken care of by medical personnel and that all of the children are safe," Rabbi Zalman Wolowik of Chabad of the Five Towns director told chabad.org. "We are doing whatever we possibly can for the families of these children during this most difficult of times and urge all people of goodwill to keep them in their prayers."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/25/hanukkah.crash/index.html
Topic: Vehicle crashes into Hanukkah celebration (Read 490 times)