Dozens of people have been injured after a 1997 Cadillac plowed into a crowd at the Trail Days Parade in the US state of Virginia.
An emergency official told local news channel WCYB that 50-60
people were injured and 12-15 patients were taken to hospitals by
ambulance or helicopters. There have been no reports of fatalities
and none of the injuries was believed to be
life-threatening.
The car was driven by an elderly man who may have lost
consciousness or “had some medical issue” and drove into the
crowd, Reuters reports citing volunteer fire department chief Ben
Sanders.
According to witness accounts, the car had a handicapped parking
sticker. “He was hitting hikers,” said Vickie Harmon, a
witness.``I saw hikers just go everywhere.”
The driver told the authorities afterward he did not remember what
had happened.
“[The driver is] a previous hiker…he also had a couple of other
vehicles that were in the parade – at the front of the parade,”
Damascus Police Chief, Bill Nunley told the channel.
The incident occurred in the town of Damascus, VA, at around 2:10pm
local time Saturday, during the annual celebration of the
Appalachian Trail, a famous hiking trail in the northeast of the
United States.
“The vehicle went into a crowd of about 1,000 people – it was on a
bridge and they didn’t have anywhere to go, and several people
including hikers and a firefighter were able to open the door on
the vehicle and reach in and turn the ignition off while it was in
motion,” Nunley continued, stating that the crash resulted in
multiple injuries.
The car had bored into the crowd at car about 25 mph. Lucky
escapees pitched in to offer assistance to the wounded.
“We didn’t know how many we had…hikers were able to pick up a
1997 Cadillac and pull individuals from underneath it – I’ve never
seen anything like that before,” said Nunley.
One young child, who turned up at the parade to squirt
water-guns at hikers, said that one of his potential targets saved
his life.
“We heard screams behind us, and [a hiker] sort of pushed us
out of the way from it, and me, and all of us, we looked back and
saw…misery. Hikers on top, hikers under the bottom of the car, and
it just kept going,” said Dalton Thompson, describing
accompanying screams.
“It was unreal…like, nothing could be as scary as that. I
couldn’t find my dad or anyone,” he told WCYB.
The injured were taken to area hospitals, including seven to
Johnston Memorial in Abingdon and one flown to the Johnston City
Medical Center, according to the channel. Bristol Regional Medical
Center had two patients flown in, but were prepared for a
considerably worse scenario. One of those two has already been
discharged.
“In 27 years of this, we've never had anything of this
magnitude,” Mayor Jack McCrady told AP.