YOW. A cracked up mom, with a 7-yo kid in the back, plowed a Volvo 740 station wagon through a giant Washington DC street fair Saturday night, injuring up to 40 people, including at least seven kids. The rampage apparently extended over nine blocks. [here's a graphic of the car's known path]
Dads swung strollers with kids out of the way, while others threw empty strollers under the car in an attempt to stop it. [Accounts differ on what finally stopped the car; witnesses say a guy reached into the passenger window and threw the wagon into park, while DC cops threw their scooters under the car.]
The Washington Post is all over the story, but nothing's more harrowing than the play by play of one DC dad's experience, complete with product placement:
At first, Denise Jackson thought some kids were out for a joy ride. She heard screaming and turned to see a bunch of people clinging to the hood of a car. Then she saw people in the air. She grabbed the hand of her 6-year-old daughter, Doseza. And began looking anxiously for her 4-year-old son.As Car Charged Down, Man Lifted Son Up and Out of Its Perilous Path"Marcellus!" she screamed as the Volvo station wagon flew past. "Vencent!" Minutes before, her son had gone with his father, Vencent Hayes, for chicken kebabs. She knew they were just up W Street from where she and Doseza had stopped for ice cream in front of Union Temple Baptist Church. But she couldn't see them. "Marcellus! Vencent!"
"Bodies were flying like a deck of cards," Jackson recalled. "You could hear people hit the ground so hard. It was like: Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
...
Hayes and Marcellus had been walking in the middle of the road. All the streets were barricaded for Unifest, transforming narrow W Street into a bustling, vendor-filled pedestrian alley. Hayes thought they were safe. Then he saw the unmistakable grille of the Volvo.
Driver Used Crack Before Festival Crash, D.C. Police Say [washpost]
image: The Washington Volvo Club [volvoclubdc.com]
Oh, come on, Greg. Of all people, you can't leave out the best line of the story:
"I'm no hero," he said. "I'm a daddy."
[I couldn't put it in. I was too weepy to type it -ed.]