Car plows through crowded Santa Monica farmers market

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- A car driven by an elderly man plowed through a crowded farmers market Wednesday, killing eight and injuring up to 45 others as the vehicle hurled victims through the air, smashing through market tents and boxes of produce.

Police said 15 victims were critically injured, and a 3-year-old girl was among those killed along three downtown blocks closed for the once-a-week market, transformed within seconds into a makeshift hospital morgue.

"It was like a hurricane just came down the center of the street," said Megan Sheehy, general manager of a nearby restaurant.

Police chief James T. Butts Jr. said 20 to 30 people had moderate or light injuries.

Butts said the 86-year-old driver told officers he couldn't stop. "His statement is that he possibly hit the gas instead of the brakes," he said.

Police did not identify the driver, but he was identified as Russell Weller of Santa Monica by the man's neighbors. Weller is one of the registered owners of the car, according to Department of Motor Vehicle records.

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 and hallucinogens.

Driver investigated

The driver 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.

The man left police headquarters by late afternoon. Walking unsteadily with a cane, he hugged and smiled at people who picked him up from the police station.

Butts said he did not have an estimate of the car's speed. Witnesses said the red 1992 Buick was moving very fast along Arizona Avenue.

"Sixty miles per hour and it wasn't slowing down. It was flying. And then people down, dead and everything," said David Lang, manager of a shoe store along the market route.

"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."

David Leifer was shopping for tropical fruit when he heard someone scream, "Oh my God." He looked around to see a street full of bleeding, critically injured people.

He stripped off his shirt and used it to prop up the head of a badly cut woman, then grabbed some oranges to support her legs.

"I had blood all over me," Leifer said.

Bahram Manahedgi, 50, said one person was on the hood of the car when it finally 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."'

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.

"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.

The car was extensively damaged, including a smashed front end and windshield. What appeared to be shoes were on its roof.

The injured were treated on large orange dropsheets before they were taken to hospitals by ambulance or helicopter.

The avenue was strewn with tents collapsed around their twisted metal frames. Handbags and shoes littered the scene.

A baby stroller sat in the street. Jerry Farias, who had been selling potatoes and melons at the market, said he saw a woman snatch her child from the path of the speeding car. The woman was struck, and the child suffered a head cut, but neither appeared to have life-threatening injuries, he said.

The Wednesday market bisects Santa Monica's popular Third Street pedestrian promenade and is near the famous Santa Monica Pier. It draws thousands of shoppers.

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Associated Press Writers Sandra Marquez and Tim Molloy contributed to this article.