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Old driver kills 9 in California
http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/07/18 11:52  Shanghai Daily

  Authorities in Santa Monica, California, were investigating why an 86-year-old man's car plowed through a crowded farmers market, killing nine and injuring up to 45 others - and whether the driver was competent to be driving in the first place.

  Police said Russell Weller told them he may have hit the gas pedal instead of the brake on Wednesday, hurling victims into the air as his car careened down a street closed to traffic.

  "Mr Weller and his family want to express their deepest sympathies to the victims and their families of the tragic accident earlier today," Weller family attorney Jim Bianco said in a statement on Wednesday. "This was an un-intentional and unfortunate accident."

  Eight victims were pronounced dead at the scene and a ninth died later in hospital. Fourteen others were critically injured at the market where local farmers and artisans were selling their wares.

  Weller was taken to a hospital for a blood test and initial results found no traces of alcohol or psychoactive drugs. He has a valid driver's license, Police Chief James T. Butts Jr said.

  Butts said he did not have an estimate of the car's speed. Witnesses said Weller's 1992 Buick was moving very fast down the three downtown blocks of Arizona Avenue that were closed for the street market.

  "Sixty miles per hour (97 kilometers) and it wasn't slowing down. It was flying. And then people down, dead and everything," said David Lang, manager of a shoe store along the market route.

  "I heard a car just hit, bang, bang, bang," said Mojgan Pour, 38. "I heard people screaming. By the time I looked, I never even saw the car. I tried to help a man and he died while I was helping him."

  Weller walked unsteadily with a cane as he left police headquarters late on Wednesday.




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