Olga Rivera, NYC Woman, Struck And Killed By Truck On Her Birthday; 4 More Injured At The Scene

A tragic accident in New York's East Harlem left one woman dead and four other injured Monday afternoon, Daily News reported. A New York City taxi slammed into the side of a truck, which crashed into the sidewalk where Olga Rivera was standing with her longtime boyfriend Ramón Ramírez. Rivera, 65 and Ramirez, 68, who had dated for a decade, were heading to his home at the Carver Houses on E. 99th St. when the truck hit Rivera at 12:51 p.m. Witnesses told cops the truck had the green light when the taxi, carrying a mother and her 9-year-old daughter, plowed into it.

The cab was traveling west on 102nd Street when it went through an underpass and struck the truck, which was heading south on Park Avenue. "Mi amor! Mi amor!" Ramírez sobbed in Spanish as he cradled his gravely injured companion. "Please don't die. Not today," he said. "How could this happen on your birthday?" Police had to pull Ramírez away from his girlfriend so the paramedics could have room to work because he wouldn't let go of her. Rivera was later wheeled to an ambulance and taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead later in the afternoon.

Rivera was a retired factory worker, mother of three adult children and grandmother of three. Her daughter, Vivian Rivera was called immediately after the horrible accident. She was at the Veterans Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, since she's in the U.S. Navy. "The whole thing is a nightmare. She was a wonderful person. She was all I had," said Vivian, 45, who arrived at Mount Sinai in her blue Navy dress uniform. "They were beautiful together," Margaret Ramírez, 55, said of her brother Ramon and Rivera. "They were very much in love."

The cab driver was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, the truck driver was treated at the scene for minor injuries, the mother and daughter riding in the cab's backseat were in critical condition late Monday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell and Ramirez was treated for shock at Mount Sinai. Police are looking into whether the cab may have run a red light, but residents said sometimes it's difficult to see the stoplight as you come through the underpass.

"It's not the first time," one woman told CBS. "This is really serious." Another resident added, "There used to be a cleaners on the corner there, and cabs and cars used to always crash into the cleaners." Chris Suárez, who also lives in the area said, "All the time, there's an accident here, and the reason is because that light is too high. So they go in, and whoever comes from Park Avenue is gonna get hit."