4 people injured in car crash in the East Village: NYPD

Three people were hospitalized and one other was injured after an allegedly drunken driver careened across a crowded sidewalk on Second Avenue Wednesday, officials said.

Shaun Martin, 32, of Bayside, was arrested and charged with a DWI, DWAI, criminal possession of a controlled substance and refusal to take a breath test after the crash around 6:30 a.m., when he blew down Second Avenue in a rented Nissan Altima and jumped the curb at East Fourth Street, plowing into a corner deli, according to the NYPD. He refused a breath test on the scene.

"It was a nightmare. It was a one-second tornado," said Pratik Shah, 36, whose family owns the deli that the car crashed into.

Three employees of the deli were hospitalized after the crash and as many as three other people were injured after Martin's car tore through the block, ripping up a fire hydrant, a tree and 300-pound Muni Meter in the process, DNAinfo.com reported. A female passenger of the car was also hospitalized with minor injuries, and a 37-year-old person riding a Citi Bike was rear-ended by the car, reports said.

Two of the workers were taken into surgery, while the third was set to be released with only minor cuts and bruises.

Bernard Arocho, 55, of the East Village, said he saw the car screaming down Second Avenue when it jumped the curb, taking out nearly everything on the sidewalk and finally crashing into a flower arrangement at Shah's deli.

"The way he was coming down the sidewalk, he was in another planet," Arocho said, adding that he only saw Martin's car, contrary to some reports that there were two cars drag racing at the time of the crash.

Arocho added: "I couldn't believe that little car had so much force to destroy all of that."

Martin was taken to Bellevue Hospital with minor cuts, where police allegedly found a marijuana stash in his sock, according to DNAinfo.

Police said they weren't sure how fast the car was going at the time of the crash, and couldn't say whether another car was involved.