2 hurt as car plows down Locust
Told to move by cops, unlicensed driver loses control of SUV
It started out with a simple request.
A Parking Authority employee ambled over to a young woman sitting behind the wheel of an idling cherry-red Mercury Mountaineer in Center City yesterday afternoon and advised her to move the SUV out of a forbidden zone or face a ticket.
From there, all hell broke loose.
The 20-year-old driver - who didn't have a license - panicked, police said, and slammed down on the gas pedal.
The Mountaineer rumbled down Locust Street like a herd of stampeding elephants, leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
The SUV smashed into another car, jumped the curb and tore down the sidewalk for about 50 yards, plowing through a bike rack and a mailbox, then striking two prominent local attorneys before finally coming to a stop under an awning on the edge of Locust and Sydenham streets.
The unidentified driver and a female passenger took off on foot, but both were quickly apprehended by cops at 20th and Market streets. The driver was charged with fleeing the scene of an accident and recklessly endangering another person, said Sgt. Larry Ritchie of the police Accident Investigation Division.
Her passenger and an unidentified man who emerged from a nearby office building and who claimed to own the Mountaineer are not facing charges, Ritchie said.
A police source said one of the lawyers, David Winston, was pinned beneath the Mountaineer. Witnesses helped lift the SUV off of Winston, 47. He was listed in critical condition at Hahnemann University Hospital last night with leg and rib injuries and a ruptured spleen, according to hospital officials.
The other lawyer, William Harvey, 54, was listed in stable condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, officials said.
"She moved the car so she wouldn't get a ticket and just lost control of the vehicle," Ritchie said. "She wasn't trying to harm anyone."
The carnage stunned pedestrians and local employees who were enjoying an otherwise idyllic spring afternoon of sunshine, warm temperatures and occasional breezes.
Ralph Figueroa, an employee at the Acorn Club on Sydenham Street, said he was enjoying a cigarette break about 2:45 p.m. when he heard a loud crash and saw a mailbox spew envelopes as it flew through the air.
He dashed towards Locust Street and saw Winston, clad in a dark suit, struggling underneath the SUV.
"It happened so fast, my first instinct was to just run in that direction and get the car off him," Figueroa said.
About six or seven other on-lookers joined Figueroa and lifted the Mountaineer off Winston. Others crowded around the chaotic accident scene, taking cell-phone pictures of the mangled SUV and crumpled bicycles nearby.
"He looked shocked and was shaking slightly when he was talking to me," Figueroa said of the badly injured attorney. "He kept his eyes on the car the entire time and wasn't too responsive."
Figueroa said two people who identified themselves as a doctor and nurse tended to Winston until paramedics arrived.
William Nelson, another Acorn Club employee who rushed out to the crash scene, praised the Good Samaritans who came to Winston's aid.
"His bone was exposed," he said, gesturing toward his ankle. "If they didn't get the car off of him, he'd probably be dead." *
