SAN DIEGO — Three people were killed and several others were injured when a car drove up onto a sidewalk often lined with homeless people in tents in a tunnel underneath San Diego City College on Monday morning, police said.
The driver, a 71-year-old man, stopped and tried to render aid to the victims, police Chief David Nisleit said. The driver was detained, and investigators are looking into the possibility that he was driving while impaired.
Three people died at the scene of the crash, just after 9 a.m. on B Street west of 16th Street. Five others were injured — two critically — and a sixth person declined treatment.
Nisleit said the victims appear to be homeless. People who are homeless often take shelter in the spot, and tents usually line the sidewalk there — more so given Monday’s wet weather.
San Diego City College is providing instruction online to its students because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Esteban Hernandez, 46, was sleeping in his tent when he heard screeching tires and felt his tent spin around.
Hernandez came out of his tent to a chaotic scene, people screaming for help. He said he tried to comfort the victims.
“I was just trying to help,” he said.
Police received multiple 911 calls from the scene.
As investigators combed the crash site, a dark-colored car — an old Volvo — with a shattered windshield sat in the tunnel. A bike tire was wedged underneath it. Shortly before the crash, police got a radio call of a possibly impaired driver in a car matching the one involved in the deadly crash.
Several medics were called to tend to the victims. More than five dozen firefighters were sent to the scene, as well as two chaplains, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue’s online incident page.
The area is a short tunnel in a stretch west of 16th and east of Park Boulevard. The top of the tunnel is known as Curran Plaza, and is part of the school.
Police initially said the driver had fled after the crash.
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(Union-Tribune staff photographer Sam Hodgson contributed to this report.)
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