A beloved sales lady at Saks Fifth Avenue in Midtown was crushed to death in a car accident as she helped her husband fix a flat tire on the Major Deegan Expressway, cops said yesterday.
“We’re all devastated. She’s a special lady and anyone who knew her would say that,” said one stunned co-worker at the tony store where Irina Koutcherova, 43, had worked.
The tragic accident occurred Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. shortly after Koutcherova got a call from her husband, Yuri, who had broken down on his way home, neighbors said.
Irina borrowed a friend’s car and drove from the couple’s house in Yonkers to pick up her stranded husband at the northbound McLean Avenue exit ramp in The Bronx.
Yesterday, a bleary-eyed Yuri recounted to neighbor Annie Mejia how he watched his wife die.
“She was standing in the back of our car. Suddenly the [other] car hit her. She was still alive and I held her in my arms.
“She was trying to talk, but then she was gone,” he sobbed .
“He told me he didn’t understand why he was alive, the car should have hit him too. He is so sad and depressed. He can’t take the sadness,” Mejia said, adding that the Russian-born couple has a 20-year-old son.
The 23-year-old unidentified driver remained at the scene. He was not arrested or ticketed. (p. 15 Metro)