Six people were injured after a driver left his car and forgot to put it in park. This accident happened at a Pittsburgh festival this past weekend, according to PEOPLE.
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Driver Forgets To Put Car In Park, Leaving 6 Injured
A press release revealed that Pittsburgh Police, Fire, and EMS responded around 6:30 PM to a report on Broad Street at Center Avenue. These reports claimed a vehicle had crashed into a crowd of people in the East Liberty neighborhood.
Upon arrival, first responders learned from witnesses that this vehicle was slow-moving. It also didn’t have a driver present, meaning the vehicle’s owner had likely forgotten to put it in park.
Event photographer Ricco J.L. Martello spoke to WTAE after witnessing the incident unfold. “I put the camera up to take a photo,” Martello began. “And next thing I know, I see the car coming up in lanes.
“I dropped the camera, and they were … it was already too late. They were already getting hit.”
The car had drifted into the swarm of people at this community festival, injuring five adult females and one adult male. EMS transported five of the victims to local hospitals, with three in serious but stable condition.
The two others were in better, stable condition. Otherwise, the sixth victim refused EMS transport but was evaluated at the scene.
In an email sent to PEOPLE, Pittsburgh police revealed that the injured victims were “quickly upgraded to stable condition and at this time no one remains hospitalized.”
Luckily, the adult male owner of the vehicle in question stayed at the scene. The press release described him as “highly cooperative” during the ongoing investigation.
“I see him running, you know, from the sidewalk to try to stop the car,” said Martello about the male driver. “I mean, he felt really bad.”
He reportedly told police that he thought he’d placed his vehicle into park before exiting. It seems it was all an accident, so police won’t be pressing charges at this time.
Event Manager Speaks Up
“It was a freak accident. Probably the gears didn’t shift or something,” said Eddie Drummond, son of Anita Drummond, who runs the festival. “Then it rolled into everyone. But unfortunately, you know, people got injured.”
Anita also spoke up about the scary accident. “We go check on our family members, and we have other family members here to carry this on, whatever they want to do, but we got to go check on the ones that are hurt,” she said.
“We also had to check on the man in the car to make sure that he was OK.”
Despite the numerous injuries, Anita continued running the festival. “It’s breathing life back into this community,” she said. “You know, we have so many people that’s around here that are low-income and they’re trying to do something for themselves.”