Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — A stolen sport utility vehicle struck two pedestrians and injured five other people Wednesday afternoon as it drove on a San Francisco sidewalk and smashed into other cars while fleeing police, authorities said.
A person struck in a crosswalk was treated for life-threatening injuries and was listed in stable condition, KPIX-TV reported.
Another pedestrian and five drivers — including the woman behind the wheel of the SUV — had non-life threatening injuries, police said.
She was arrested but her name wasn’t immediately released. It also wasn’t immediately clear whether she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The car took off in a neighborhood after an officer checked the license plate of a silver Kia in an intersection and found it was stolen, a police statement said.
The car then stopped in front of a nearby police station, authorities said.
Surveillance video showed the car running up on a sidewalk, hitting a building, and injuring a construction worker near some scaffolding as more than a dozen police swarmed it. The SUV then backed up and went forward several times, hitting a tree and several cars, including an unmarked police car, before managing to drive off.
The SUV then hit a person in a crosswalk and four other cars before finally stopping in another neighborhood, police said.
One car was struck as the stolen SUV plowed the wrong way down a street. Two were struck near where Lauren Sorensen, 43, was about to cross the street.
“We were all about to cross,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle . “The crowd of people waiting was two to three people deep. We’re so lucky.”
“This is a very densely populated area. It’s very scary what I saw,” police Sgt. Michael Andraychak told the Chronicle about the video. “It’s very, very dangerous what this person was doing ... and right at about 2 o’ clock, just as schools are letting out.”