10 Injured In Crash At SF Chinatown Bus Stop
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A car involved in a chain-reaction crash careened into a crowded Muni bus stop in San Francisco's Chinatown Friday, injuring 10 people and leaving glass and debris scattered all over the street.
There were few details, but the San Francisco Fire Department said that a vehicle had crashed into a bus stop at Stockton Street and Sacramento Street at 12:37 p.m.
San Francisco Fire initially confirmed that five people were injured. A later tweet increased the number of injured to 8 and noted that five had "major injuries," but authorities later upped the number of injured to 10.
The five victims with the most serious injuries were taken to San Francisco General Hospital, according police spokeswoman Officer Giselle Talkoff said. The other five victims were taken to other hospitals in the city.
Authorities later confirmed that two of the victims had critical injuries.
The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and Talkoff didn't know his condition.
She said the collision appears to be accidental, but it remains under investigation. Police later confirmed that the driver, a woman, was cooperating with the investigation into the accident.
San Francisco Police later said that the car that hit the bus stop was traveling on Stockton Street and apparently lost control, hitting an unoccupied parked car and another car that was moving before plowing into the Muni stop.
Stockton Street between Clay Street and California Street remained closed as the investigation into the crash continued. The closure will likely continue until at least 5 p.m.
Xiaogang Ma is a visitor from Idaho who happened to be at the scene.
"I was walking along the sidewalk and then I heard a huge noise just behind me so I just jumped to a corner along the street," said Ma. "And then I looked back after like one or two seconds I saw this car just rush to the sidewalk and it hit I think six or five people. A few of them were screaming, just trying to use the phone maybe to call the police or call their family members. And some of them just screaming, 'Please call the police!'"
Acting San Francisco Fire Chief Paul Crawford said the injuries ranged from broken bones to far more serious trauma.
"A lot of broken legs, open fractures of broken legs, head injuries," said Crawford. "The two criticals were head injury, back injuries."
Police and fire units remained on the scene into the early evening. By about 6 p.m., most of the wreckage had been cleaned up and the street appeared to be close to reopening to traffic.
