DeafSCUBA98
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86 year old man killed serveral people and injured many people in car smashing markets, and freed to go home!
http://www.msnbc.com/news/939947.asp
SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 16 — Eight people were killed and more than 40 others injured Wednesday when a car plowed through a crowded street market in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, police said. Authorities said a 3-year-old girl was among those killed in the crash, with 15 people critically hurt and more than 20 suffering moderate injuries. A dozen more people had minor injuries. Hours after the incident, the car’s driver was released from police custody.THE BURGUNDY 1992 BUICK sedan, driven by a man who authorities said was in his 80s, careered through the farmers’ market for several blocks before coming to rest with a smashed windshield. The weekly market is held on a street near the beach closed to traffic. NBC affiliate KNBC identified the driver as 86-year-old Russell Weller, whom neighbors described for the station as articulate and community-oriented. Weller is one of the registered owners of the car, according to Department of Motor Vehicle records.
Weller’s family issued an apology Wednesday night.
“Mr. Weller and his family want to express their deepest sympathies to the victims and their families of the tragic accident,” family attorney Jim Bianco said in the statement. “This was an unintentional and unfortunate accident. Mr. Weller is shaken up, but his thoughts tonight are with the victims and their families. “
Santa Monica Police Chief James Butts Jr. said the driver told officers he couldn’t stop. “His statement is that he possibly hit the gas instead of the brakes,” he said.
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“There has been a tragic loss of life here, and our thoughts are with their families while we continue to treat the injured,” said Butts.
“Obviously the vehicle was traveling at a moderate speed, but I will not comment further until a full investigation has been carried out.”
Butts said the driver was taken to a hospital for a blood test and initial results found no traces of alcohol or psychoactive drugs such as antidepressants or hallucinogens.
‘A more careful, gentle, loving person you’ll never find.’
— MARY RONEY
Neighbor of the man thought to be the driver of the car in Wednesday's accident Weller was not arrested, but authorities were considering whether the case was “manslaughter of some type” and investigating whether he was qualified to drive, Butts said.
“There may be some negligence as to his capacity to drive safely,” Butts said, although he added that the man has a valid driver’s license.
Weller left police headquarters by late afternoon, about four hours after the accident. Walking unsteadily with a cane, he hugged and smiled at people who picked him up from the police station.
Mary Roney, who has lived two doors from Weller and his wife for 30 years, said he has never had any trouble driving and she did not know of any health problems.
Russell Weller, center, is met by his great-grandson Wednesday as he leaves the Santa Monica police station after being questioned by police. The man at the left is unidentified.
“A more careful, gentle, loving person you’ll never find,” Roney said. She described Weller as active in the community, including serving on a library board and tutoring students at Santa Monica High School.
Butts withheld making any assessments of the driver’s state of mind.
“I wouldn’t want to characterize his state at this time, because that’s going to be part of the investigation,” Butts told KNBC.
“In 30 years this is the single most devastating scene I have encountered,” Butts told reporters.DEFINITELY FREEWAY SPEED’
“At first he (the driver) was hitting the fruit stands on the street; then he swerved toward the middle,” one eyewitness told KNBC’s Patrick Healy. The eyewitness, who said the driver narrowly missed striking him, said the driver was at “definitely freeway speed, 60 or 70 … he was moving.”
Other eyewitness estimates of the car’s speed varied from 40 to 80 miles an hour.
Witnesses said victims were hurled through the air as the car smashed through market tents and boxes of produce.
“I heard a car just hit, bang! bang! bang!” said Mojgan Pour, 38. “I heard people screaming. By the time I looked, I never even saw the car. I tried to help a man, and he died while I was helping him.”
Police on Wednesday investigate the scene where a car plowed through the farmers market.
“It was just a four-door car, straight down through the farmers market. It happened really, really fast,” said David Lang, manager of a shoe store along the market route. “Sixty miles per hour, and it wasn’t slowing down. It was flying. And then people down, dead and everything.”
Bahram Manahedgi, 50, said one person was on the hood of the car when it came to rest, and a woman was crushed beneath it.
Manahedgi said that when he went to pull the driver out, “he was an old man. His eyes were open, and he was alive. I said, ‘Do you know what the hell you did?’ He said, ‘No.’ I just opened the door. I pulled him out.”
A crowd gathered around the car and “wanted to beat him up,” Manahedgi said. “I said, ‘He’s an old man, leave him alone.’”
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
“It was like a hurricane just came down the center of the street,” said Megan Sheehy, general manager of a nearby restaurant.
Crumpled boxes of produce lay smashed on the ground along the path of destruction. The damaged car appeared to have several shoes on its roof.
More than a dozen fire trucks and ambulances massed and plastic tarpaulins were laid out to provide treatment areas for the injured.
“We have surgeons, we have blood at the blood banks and have activated emergency operational mode. Things are really running quite smoothly,” Dr. Russ Kino, medical director of St. John’s Medical Center, told reporters.
“There’s a lot of eagerness to be of help in some way,” Kino said. “To see the volunteerism among the staff, it’s been really gratifying.”
The Wednesday market occupies two blocks along Arizona Avenue in the oceanside city, bisecting its popular Third Street pedestrian promenade. The area, dotted with theaters and restaurants, draws thousands of shoppers. Santa Monica is a Los Angeles suburb renowned for its sweeping beaches and grassy park atop a bluff overlooking the ocean and the Santa Monica Pier.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/939947.asp
SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 16 — Eight people were killed and more than 40 others injured Wednesday when a car plowed through a crowded street market in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, police said. Authorities said a 3-year-old girl was among those killed in the crash, with 15 people critically hurt and more than 20 suffering moderate injuries. A dozen more people had minor injuries. Hours after the incident, the car’s driver was released from police custody.THE BURGUNDY 1992 BUICK sedan, driven by a man who authorities said was in his 80s, careered through the farmers’ market for several blocks before coming to rest with a smashed windshield. The weekly market is held on a street near the beach closed to traffic. NBC affiliate KNBC identified the driver as 86-year-old Russell Weller, whom neighbors described for the station as articulate and community-oriented. Weller is one of the registered owners of the car, according to Department of Motor Vehicle records.
Weller’s family issued an apology Wednesday night.
“Mr. Weller and his family want to express their deepest sympathies to the victims and their families of the tragic accident,” family attorney Jim Bianco said in the statement. “This was an unintentional and unfortunate accident. Mr. Weller is shaken up, but his thoughts tonight are with the victims and their families. “
Santa Monica Police Chief James Butts Jr. said the driver told officers he couldn’t stop. “His statement is that he possibly hit the gas instead of the brakes,” he said.
Advertisement
“There has been a tragic loss of life here, and our thoughts are with their families while we continue to treat the injured,” said Butts.
“Obviously the vehicle was traveling at a moderate speed, but I will not comment further until a full investigation has been carried out.”
Butts said the driver was taken to a hospital for a blood test and initial results found no traces of alcohol or psychoactive drugs such as antidepressants or hallucinogens.
‘A more careful, gentle, loving person you’ll never find.’
— MARY RONEY
Neighbor of the man thought to be the driver of the car in Wednesday's accident Weller was not arrested, but authorities were considering whether the case was “manslaughter of some type” and investigating whether he was qualified to drive, Butts said.
“There may be some negligence as to his capacity to drive safely,” Butts said, although he added that the man has a valid driver’s license.
Weller left police headquarters by late afternoon, about four hours after the accident. Walking unsteadily with a cane, he hugged and smiled at people who picked him up from the police station.
Mary Roney, who has lived two doors from Weller and his wife for 30 years, said he has never had any trouble driving and she did not know of any health problems.
Russell Weller, center, is met by his great-grandson Wednesday as he leaves the Santa Monica police station after being questioned by police. The man at the left is unidentified.
“A more careful, gentle, loving person you’ll never find,” Roney said. She described Weller as active in the community, including serving on a library board and tutoring students at Santa Monica High School.
Butts withheld making any assessments of the driver’s state of mind.
“I wouldn’t want to characterize his state at this time, because that’s going to be part of the investigation,” Butts told KNBC.
“In 30 years this is the single most devastating scene I have encountered,” Butts told reporters.DEFINITELY FREEWAY SPEED’
“At first he (the driver) was hitting the fruit stands on the street; then he swerved toward the middle,” one eyewitness told KNBC’s Patrick Healy. The eyewitness, who said the driver narrowly missed striking him, said the driver was at “definitely freeway speed, 60 or 70 … he was moving.”
Other eyewitness estimates of the car’s speed varied from 40 to 80 miles an hour.
Witnesses said victims were hurled through the air as the car smashed through market tents and boxes of produce.
“I heard a car just hit, bang! bang! bang!” said Mojgan Pour, 38. “I heard people screaming. By the time I looked, I never even saw the car. I tried to help a man, and he died while I was helping him.”
Police on Wednesday investigate the scene where a car plowed through the farmers market.
“It was just a four-door car, straight down through the farmers market. It happened really, really fast,” said David Lang, manager of a shoe store along the market route. “Sixty miles per hour, and it wasn’t slowing down. It was flying. And then people down, dead and everything.”
Bahram Manahedgi, 50, said one person was on the hood of the car when it came to rest, and a woman was crushed beneath it.
Manahedgi said that when he went to pull the driver out, “he was an old man. His eyes were open, and he was alive. I said, ‘Do you know what the hell you did?’ He said, ‘No.’ I just opened the door. I pulled him out.”
A crowd gathered around the car and “wanted to beat him up,” Manahedgi said. “I said, ‘He’s an old man, leave him alone.’”
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
“It was like a hurricane just came down the center of the street,” said Megan Sheehy, general manager of a nearby restaurant.
Crumpled boxes of produce lay smashed on the ground along the path of destruction. The damaged car appeared to have several shoes on its roof.
More than a dozen fire trucks and ambulances massed and plastic tarpaulins were laid out to provide treatment areas for the injured.
“We have surgeons, we have blood at the blood banks and have activated emergency operational mode. Things are really running quite smoothly,” Dr. Russ Kino, medical director of St. John’s Medical Center, told reporters.
“There’s a lot of eagerness to be of help in some way,” Kino said. “To see the volunteerism among the staff, it’s been really gratifying.”
The Wednesday market occupies two blocks along Arizona Avenue in the oceanside city, bisecting its popular Third Street pedestrian promenade. The area, dotted with theaters and restaurants, draws thousands of shoppers. Santa Monica is a Los Angeles suburb renowned for its sweeping beaches and grassy park atop a bluff overlooking the ocean and the Santa Monica Pier.
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