LOS ANGELES — Three people were killed when a vehicle careened into pedestrians near a public transportation stop in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, officials said.
Los Angeles police said a white SUV struck at least five pedestrians at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in the North Hollywood section of the city, where a Los Angeles Metro station is located, at around 5:55 p.m.
Three others were taken to the hospital in critical condition, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
The SUV’s driver, a man in his mid-60s, was among the injured, Police Capt. Warner Castillo said. The department’s drug-recognition experts were at the hospital to determine whether the driver was impaired, he said.
Police did not believe that any other vehicle was involved, Castillo said.
The fire department said the three people who were killed were beyond medical help when first responders arrived and were declared dead at the scene.
Assistant Fire Chief Joe Everett told reporters that an agency battalion chief came across the crash at around 6 p.m., “and what he found was a car that had careened into a number of people on the sidewalk.”
Everyone who was struck was on the sidewalk, Police Chief Jim McDonnell said, noting that the investigation is still in its early stages.
Mayor Karen Bass said the people who were struck were pedestrians and vendors. She said her office is coordinating with city departments and authorities to determine the cause of the crash.
“I’m heartbroken for the families of everyone impacted. We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available,” Bass said.
Aerial video from NBC Los Angeles showed what appeared to be a white vehicle crashed into the side of the Metro station, which houses escalators and stairs that go down to the subway, and debris scattered over the area.
“It was a huge boom,” Lincoln Brown, who was walking away from the station at the time, told NBC Los Angeles.
“I was walking the opposite direction, but I heard a loud crash behind me,” he said. “I turn around, and I see a car that’s smashed up against the Metro over there.”
A witness said two women selling hot dogs were thrown in the air from the impact, the station reported.
It was not clear how fast the vehicle was traveling, and investigators will be looking at video and interviewing witnesses, McDonnell said.
“It’ll be probably a prolonged but very deliberate investigation to determine what happened here, and our hearts go out to the families of the victims that were struck here tonight,” he said.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors member Kathryn Barger expressed her condolences and wishes for the recovery of those injured.
“I am stunned by the tragic loss of life in North Hollywood and my thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones, and everyone affected by this devastating incident,” she said in a statement.
