3 people still critical after car plowed down Times Square sidewalk: police

NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - Three people were in critical condition on Friday after a driver plowed into pedestrians a day earlier in Times Square, killing a young woman and injuring 20 others, police said.

One of the three, a 38-year-old woman from Canada, was in very critical condition, Chief of Manhattan South Detectives Bill Aubrey told a news conference. Aubrey said results of drug tests on the driver were expected in the next few days.

Richard Rojas, 26, knocked pedestrians into the air as he sped for three blocks in his burgundy Honda sedan through one of the city's busiest areas on Thursday before crashing into a metal stanchion, the New York Police Department said.

RELATED: Horrific photos from the scene

Rojas, who is from the Bronx area of New York City, had been arrested twice for drunken driving, in 2008 and 2015, and once this month on a charge of menacing for threatening another man with a knife, police said.

City officials do not consider the incident an act of terrorism, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a visit to the scene on Thursday.

RELATED: Times Square driver was high on synthetic marijuana (K2) when he slammed into pedestrians: report

Police said the young woman killed on the sidewalk was Alyssa Elsman, 18, who was on vacation with her family from Michigan. Twenty-two people were injured.

Rojas was due to appear in Manhattan's criminal court on Friday to be arraigned on one count of second-degree murder, five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and 20 counts of attempted murder.

Although only one person was killed, a driver can face multiple counts of vehicular homicide under New York law if other people are seriously injured. It was unclear if Rojas has a lawyer.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus and Jonathan Allen; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Daniel Wallis and Lisa Von Ahn)