A woman hit five University of Minnesota students and one parent Sunday when driving drunk in Stadium Village.
Kristine Peterson, 32, of St. Francis, Minn., faces a misdemeanor for driving while intoxicated. She was released Sunday night and is due in court Nov. 26.
According to police and witness accounts, Peterson turned left onto Oak Street Southeast from Washington Avenue Southeast as a group of about 10 people began to cross Oak Street heading east.
“We got the walk signal and took maybe a few steps, and the next thing I knew, I was in the air and then on the ground,” computer science junior Michael Duffy said Sunday night.
Duffy, who sustained minimal injuries but had some bad bruises and scrapes, was hit along with his girlfriend, horticulture sophomore Abigail Reynolds, and his dad, Kevin Duffy.
Michael Duffy said his dad suffered the worst
injuries.
Kayla Winter, a North Dakota State University student, was parked across the street in her car during the accident.
Winter said she heard the accident and looked up to see somebody flipping through the air.
She rushed to her car and saw a girl rolling on the ground, Kevin Duffy with blood pouring from his head and a college-age male crying on the ground.
Winter said she tried to comfort one of the victims until police arrived. The six people hit were then transported to the Hennepin County Medical Center.
Biology freshman Katie Jensen was walking to Noodles & Company on Washington Avenue with her roommate Hana Felix and another friend when she said a woman “came out of nowhere” with her car.
“We all saw her,” Jensen said. “And the next thing you knew you were on the ground.”
She said it appeared the driver had accelerated around the corner because it took her a while to stop after she hit them.
“[The driver] kept saying ‘I didn’t see them, I didn’t see them,’” she said. “There were at least 10 people in the crosswalk, and she hit six of us. That’s quite a few people to miss.”
Jensen is on crutches because of injuries to her knee. She’s waiting two weeks for an MRI to determine whether she’ll need knee surgery. She said she missed one class Monday and used University Paratransit Services to attend her other two classes.
Tucker Hjermstad, who was walking to Noodles with Jensen and Felix, also sustained injuries from the crash. He said his left shoulder went into the windshield of the car and his right leg hit the bumper.
The passenger side of the car’s windshield sustained a large crack, but there was little other visible damage to the vehicle.
Hjermstad, a neuroscience freshman, said he didn’t go to class Monday because he was unable to walk for the first half of the day. He said he doesn’t have any broken bones, but the swelling in his knee is so bad he’ll return to the hospital for an MRI on
Thursday.
He was confused and angry about why the accident happened, he said.
Jensen, who saw news reports that the driver had been drunk, warned others not to drink and drive.
“It could have been prevented. If she had chosen not to drink and drive that day, none of this would have happened.”