Caleb Ferguson for The New York Times

For the second time in nine days, a car careered off a Queensboro Bridge off-ramp early Wednesday morning and smashed into the storefront of a Long Island City salon, the authorities said, raising concerns that the ramp’s sharp turnoff has created a hazard for drivers.

The circumstances of the crash, which occurred just after 4 a.m., were nearly identical to an accident March 28 that killed a 68-year-old pedestrian on the same block.

Both cases involved a driver who lost control while navigating a sharply angled bridge off-ramp that leads onto Crescent Street and Queens Plaza South; both episodes occurred in the early morning hours; and both cars were Volkswagens.

The driver in Wednesday’s episode, Alexander Palacio, 39, of Queens, was charged with an aggregated count of driving without a license. He was in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital Center. His passenger, a 40-year-old woman who was sitting in the car’s front seat, was transported to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was in critical condition with head trauma.

The car, a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta, smashed into the Villa de Beaute salon, very close to the spot where a 2007 Volkwagen Rabbit last week struck and killed Anthony Buscemi, a 68-year-old taxi driver, who was walking along the sidewalk. The driver of that car, a 35-year-old, lost an arm in the crash.

Local residents and business owners said on Wednesday that the two off-ramps leading to Queens Plaza South had been modified somewhat recently, with temporary barriers making the turn-off more severe than it had been.