A promising health professional at the start of her career was critically injured in Brooklyn over the weekend when a drunk Mercedes driver plowed into her car while fleeing cops, police said.

The wreck happened around 5:30 a.m. Sunday when 32-year-old Juan Lopez – who was behind the wheel of a Mercedes – blew a red light while fleeing cops from a traffic stop in Bushwick, police said.

He then slammed into a Honda Pilot, sending Micah Dukes, 29 — who was in the back seat — flying from the car, cops said.

She was rushed to the Elmhurst Hospital Center and is listed in critical condition, according to police, who initially said Dukes had been killed in the crash.

After ramming the Honda on Central Avenue near Gates Avenue, Lopez lost control of his ride and mounted the sidewalk, cops said. He was busted at the scene.

A 64-year-old employee at the corner store near the intersection, Edwin Castro, said he saw a police car following the Mercedes before it ran the red light and rammed into the Honda.

“I just ran over there to see if everybody, everything was okay,” he told The Post. “It caught me out of nowhere, you know? I saw her lying on the floor trying to breathe. She couldn’t breathe because she had blood all over her face.”

Dukes was lying face down on the sidewalk roughly 10 feet away from the SUV she was ejected from, Castro added.

The lifelong Bushwick resident said he told the officers at the scene that the young woman was unable to breathe, so one of the cops lifted her head and Castro placed a pillow under it until medics arrived.

Dukes, from Albany, attended Hudson Valley Community College, where she studied Community Health Navigation and graduated in May 2023 with an Associate of Applied Science, according to a spokeswoman for the school. 

During her senior year at Hudson Valley, Dukes completed a four-month internship with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Albany County, a local educational center focusing on the environment, energy, nutrition, health and wellness, among other areas, according to an online profile.

“I knew coming into this program that I wanted to help people,” she is quoted as saying in the profile. “I wanted to work with marginalized communities, people dealing with mental health issues, low income, people of color, and I think this is a good start in terms of my career. I just think it’s really important to help people improve the quality of their lives.”

Her internship opened the door for a job within the extension’s Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps people heat and winterize their homes.

She also contributed to the Healthy Neighborhoods Program, a state initiative that focuses on visiting the homes of at-risk New Yorkers and scanning for environmental health hazards.

“Now, more than ever, is the time to start in a field like this,” said Dukes. “We really need people out there helping the community.”

Lopez was slapped with a laundry list of charges, including reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an incident with serious injury, second-degree vehicular assault, unlawfully fleeing a police officer, obstructing governmental administration, reckless driving, driving while under the influence of alcohol and refusal to take a breath test, police said. 

Lopez, who was also hospitalized in stable condition, additionally received a violation for disobeying the red light, cops said. 

The 34-year-old woman behind the wheel of the Honda, who had a green light, was not hurt – and neither was a 31-year-old woman or 30-year-old man also riding in the car, according to police. 

The exact relationship between the passengers was unclear Tuesday. 

Residents said the intersection where the crash occurred is dangerous with frequent collisions.

Castro said he sees cars striking pedestrians and cyclists at Gates and Central Avenues “all the time.”

Another neighbor who has lived in a building at the corner of the intersection for the past 24 years told The Post that the intersection is “really, really scary.”

“I don’t like it here…People running the lights, the motorbikes, the bicycles, the cars,” said Veronica Sandy, 66. “Everyone runs lights around here. At least twice a month there’s an accident.”