Police Investigate Crash Pinning Pedestrian Between Car, Building In Coral Gables
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A woman was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital Wednesday morning after a freak accident in Coral Gables.
Witnesses describe some disturbing moments in the moments after the mishap when police say the pedestrian was pinned against a wall by a red car and Fire Rescue says she suffered severe trauma to her left leg.
"She was walking on the sidewalk and a vehicle struck her," said Coral Gables Police Sgt. Tomas Salcedo. "Our unit responded right away and one of our officers placed a tourniquet on the victim helping save her."
Salcedo could not confirm how the accident happened.
But witness Liliana Calderon told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that she had spoken to a woman who had witnessed the accident and Calderon said an elderly man was leaving a nearby public parking garage with a female passenger when the accident happened.
"The people driving were very shaken. It looked like they were driving out of the garage and instead of stopping he pressed the accelerator and ran into the wall. So they wedged the lady into the wall," said Calderon.
Salcedo said the driver stayed on the scene and said no so far had been cited or arrested.
Calderon said "I am in shock. This was very gruesome and when they wheeled her out they put her in the bed."
Daylin Pacheco said "We came out of work and saw police officers and Fire Rescue. We saw the red car and thought it was nothing and that it was not a major accident. But then we heard people screaming."
Calderon, Pacheco and witness Roseli Perez said they all saw the victim and thought that part of her left leg had been amputated. But Coral Gables Fire Rescue says that was not the case and that there was no amputation performed at the scene.
A neighbor, Jessica Lancaster, said this was the third major accident this year in that area. "In one case a vehicle ran in to the side of the wall by a bank." She said.
"When I heard what happened initially, I assumed that someone had been hit outside the parking garage. Every day you are walking in this corridor and you know people do not look left or right. This is very busy. It is very scary to know that this is happening in my corridor. This is horrible. This is horrific."
