Just shy of 7pm I heard a weird crash outside my window and got up to investigate, thinking car crash. The more I found out, the worse it got. There were two huge tree branches down in the street, and two kids lying motionless on the sidewalk, with a few people hovering around them.
It took me a while to put it together, but a pick-up truck ran up on the sidewalk, sheared off two trees about eight inches in diameter and hit two kids. I think one of the trees hit and badly injured an adult farther down the sidewalk, then the guy might have struck another child on a bike before skidding to a halt over 50 meters beyond the original impact. This all happened on a sometimes busy, 35mph street, though no other cars seem to have been on that stretch of road at the time.
Initially I thought the trees in the road were branches from one of the very large trees in a yard across the road, and that they'd fallen on the kids (I only saw the two most visible kids). Later my roommate came out and pointed out how they were trees sheared off by a vehicle, and I looked around some more and saw the truck, the skidmarks, and the adult victim. I'm still not sure whether there was a third child on the bike (bystanders told me so later) or the bike parts I saw were dragged farther down the road by the truck. I thought the police must have been pursuing the guy, because even as I was dialing 9-1-1, a police car of some kind (different coloration than the local cops) pulled up to the curb where the kids were, but then I went downstairs and a good forty minutes after the incident the cops were just giving the guy a sobriety test.
And oddly enough, it occured to me on the train platform today, "If some kind of violent incident broke out, would I dial 9-1-1 or would I film it?" Later the same day, I ended up doing both.
04-06-2008, 06:47 AM
GestaltAlteration
Wow. I'm sorry to hear that. I can relate having been in a similar situation (constrained on a ride, forced to watch someone get his head nearly chopped off).
Glad you called 911, but still, what a tragedy.... :?
04-06-2008, 06:50 AM
kingofclutch
That's some crazy sh** right there.
04-06-2008, 06:53 AM
Xox
@___@ Sorry to hear that man, must have been crazy just watching it.
04-06-2008, 04:37 PM
Taosaur
There are more news crews here today than there were last night. Those steps in the video are an Eastern Orthodox church, and they're interviewing people coming out of the church. I need to get a shower before I go see if they know anything. Yesterday and today are two of the first warm sunny days we've had, and there's this pall of death and tragedy over everything.
04-07-2008, 11:11 PM
Taosaur
There are three tv crews here now doing live remotes from the teddy bear shrine :P
