Posted on 02/12/2011 10:44:58 AM PST by veritas3
25 injured when taxi plows into crowd leaving Gaslamp club
By Susan Shroder
Originally published February 12, 2011 at 5:22 a.m., updated February 12, 2011 at 6:27 a.m. An injured woman on the street.
An injured woman on the street. If you witnessed this incident, give our breaking news team a call at 619-293-1010. An injured woman on the street.
Photos courtesy Maurice Luque, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department
The taxi outside Stingaree nightclub.
SAN DIEGO — Twenty-five people were injured early Saturday, six critically, when a taxi driver veered off a busy street onto a sidewalk and plowed into patrons leaving a popular Gaslamp District restaurant/nightclub just as it was closing, prompting some in the angry crowd to beat the driver and his cab.
The taxi came to rest on the sidewalk at an angle to the front doors of the Stingaree club on the corner of Sixth and Island avenues, pinning one woman against a lower outside wall, said San Diego police Lt. Todd Jarvis.
The force of the impact amputated the woman’s leg below the knee, said Maurice Luque, a San Diego fire department spokesman.
The Emerald Cab taxi driver, whose name was not released, was heading south on Sixth, a one-way street, about 2 a.m. when for unknown reasons he veered into the crowd just outside the club’s doors, Jarvis said.
“We don’t know yet why this happened,” Jarvis said. Alcohol was not a factor in the accident, police said.
Luque said that some in the crowd "attacked the driver and beat him.” Front windows of the cab were smashed.
Police said the driver, said to be from age 40 to 50, suffered a broken nose. He was taken to a hospital.
Jarvis said it did not appear that the driver intentionally drove onto the sidewalk. He said the best witness that officers interviewed, someone who was not injured, said that the driver “seemed to be out of it” and just “drifted” off the street.
Jarvis said the driver was going fairly slowly, about 15 mph at the time, which he said was lucky.
“Even if he had been going 25 miles per hour, it would have been a different story,” Jarvis said. “We were fortunate there were no fatalities in this incident with that many pedestrians on the sidewalk.”
An off-duty military paramedic who had been at the club said the scene was initially chaos, with people screaming and yelling. He said he went to the aid of three of the injured who were lying in the street and assisted them until San Diego paramedics arrived minutes later. He declined to give his name.
The injured were taken to eight hospitals, Luque said.
The other 17 people who were transported to hospitals had injuries such as broken bones, cuts and bruises, Luque said. No one required CPR. Police said two others who were injured were not transported to hospitals.
The injured who were transported were taken to UCSD Medical Center and Scripps Mercy, Sharp Memorial, Alvarado, Scripps La Jolla, Coronado, Paradise Valley and Scripps Chula Vista hospitals, Luque said.
As is routine in such mass-casualty incidents, the victims are transported to various hospitals so one hospital is not overwhelmed, he said. The most critically injured, including the woman who lost her lower leg, were transported first, he said.
Twelve ambulances were used, some of them making more than one hospital trip. Fifty-five firefighters, paramedics and support personnel from the fire department responded.
When emergency crews first arrived, they were initially asked to evacuate the noninjured from the area because of a concern that the taxi might have explosives, Luque said.
Jarvis said officers were concerned when they saw a bag with wires coming out of it on the seat of the taxi, but it turned out to be a massager.
Luque called the initial scene “organized chaos.” He said fire department crews train several times a year for such mass-casualty incidents.
In this case, he said, everything “worked like clockwork,” in that a triage area was set up at the scene, and hospitals were contacted about the patients that they would be receiving.
It was a “textbook clockwork multi-casualty incident,” he said.
susan.shroder@uniontrib.com • (619) 293-1876
Driver must have been flying through bodies with intention. Was is a hot spot for military?
One thing for sure: he is either an illegal or a muslim.
Releasing the drivers name might provide some clues as to why he veered into the crowd.
According to the article, he was moving at approx. 15mph.
Ban Taxi’s
patrons?
I think the term is “skanks and drunks” leaving a club at 5:22 AM.....
Here's a clue:
a bag with wires coming out of it on the seat of the taxi, but it turned out to be a massager.
Maybe he was, uh, distracted...
One thing for sure: he is either an illegal or a muslim.
Or couldn’t wait to get to Croce’s.
http://www.croces.com/croces.shtml
It was just after 2am. That’s when bars close in California.
Welp that does it, I’m going to demand that the government ban cabs, they are dangerous.
The article said 5:22AM
“patrons? I think the term is “skanks and drunks” leaving a club at 5:22 AM....”
The article was UPDATED at 5:22 am...the accident happened around 2 am. Besides, why would it matter what time it was? No reason to call patrons skanks and drunks!
“Driver must have been flying through bodies with intention.”
Witnesses said he was going around 15 miles an hour....that the taxi seemed to have “drifted” onto the sidewalk. He said he passed out. Police say he might have fallen asleep and that no alcohol was involved.
What is his name????
“What is his name????”
I have been in MANY taxicabs in NYC. I have yet to have a Caucasian driver. I’m sure the same goes for San Diego. He’ll either be Hispanic or Muslim. I don’t know why that makes a difference.
“This may be a clue about the driver.”
The police saw wires coming from a package on the front seat of the cab. Turned out to be a massager. No bomb.
Now about 32 hours into this story and still no information any where about the driver, no photos, no police report. No follow up on the condition of all the injured. The San Diego news doesn’t even mention it today. AP has no further follow up. Unusual with this large an incident that there is no follow up. Recall the wall to wall weeks of coverage over the Gilliford injury. In our town if you hit someones fence and break it, your name is in the local paper under police reports, ticket or no ticket. I found a San Diego attorney website already advertising how to sue the cab company and driver. The attorneys are talking; the MEDIA is not. Any San Diego Freepers have any information?
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