A car missed a turn at a busy Stadium Village intersection Thursday afternoon, jumping a curb and toppling a no-parking sign before striking several pedestrians.
Two people were rushed by ambulance to the University hospital; another walked to the hospital, according to Minneapolis police.
“Everyone is being treated thus far for minor injuries — nothing life threatening,” said Minneapolis police spokeswoman Cyndi Montgomery.
Montgomery said police are treating the incident as an accident and the driver, a 35-year-old man, will likely be ticketed for careless driving. Preliminary reports indicate neither drugs nor alcohol were involved in the accident, she added.
The accident occurred during the lunch hour at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Harvard Street.
Dentistry student Rob Stroope was sitting on the grass embankment outside Weaver-Densford Hall when he saw the car approaching.
“A car came smokin’ around the corner, about 35 or 40 miles an hour, didn’t make the corner, drove up on the curb here, smoked that sign and then ran into three people walking here,” Stroope said.
Steve Kottke, also a dentistry student, said the car knocked a man 10 feet forward and threw a woman against a retaining wall outside Weaver-Densford Hall. The other woman was thrown over the back of the car, he added.
Police said the red Honda Civic was travelling eastbound on Washington Avenue when its driver attempted to turn right onto southbound Harvard Street. Others said the car turned left from westbound Washington Avenue.
“There was a pedestrian crossing the street,” Montgomery said. “He was trying to avoid hitting that pedestrian. Instead of hitting his brake, he hit the accelerator.”
A half-hour afterward, the car stood unattended and idling at the side of Harvard Street, hair embedded in its shattered windshield. Its driver sat in the backseat of a Minneapolis police car.
Robert Koch welcomes comments at [email protected]