Car Plows Into Homeless Encampment | San Diego
03.15.2021 | 9:05 AM | SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Three homeless people were killed Monday and six others injured — two critically — when a car driven by a DUI suspect jumped a curb on an East Village thoroughfare and plowed into a makeshift encampment on the roadside.
The westbound Volvo station wagon veered to the right off the roadway in the 1500 block of B Street shortly after 9 a.m. and struck the transients, who were on a wide sidewalk amid several tents and various personal items, according to police.
The fatally injured victims died at the scene, said SDPD Chief David Nisleit. Paramedics took five others to hospitals for treatment of injuries varying from severe to less serious, and treated another person at the accident scene for minor trauma.
“I don’t know if people were sleeping, if people were sitting there (at the time of the crash),” Nisleit told reporters during a late-morning briefing also attended by Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Colin Stowell.
The driver, 71-year-old Craig Martin Voss of San Diego, tried to provide aid to the victims prior to the arrival of emergency crews, Nisleit said. After being questioned by officers, Voss was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, causing great bodily injury during the commission of a felony and DUI.
Just prior to the wreck near San Diego City College, police got a call from a person reporting a possible intoxicated driver in the area behind the wheel of a vehicle matching the description of the suspect’s, according to Nisleit. Investigators believe it was the same car that crashed onto the crowded sidewalk minutes later, the chief said.
All those struck by the vehicle were homeless, according to Council President Pro Tem Stephen Whitburn.
“As we have learned that all nine victims are a part of our unsheltered community, this is stark evidence of the need to find permanent solutions to the homelessness crisis so that no San Diegans are forced to seek shelter in unsafe places, such as under bridges and in tunnels that vehicles pass through,” Whitburn asserted in a prepared statement.
The stretch of roadside where the crash occurred — in a long underpass beneath the downtown college — is commonly occupied by squatters seeking shelter from inclement weather, such as the periodic rain that fell in the city Monday, the mayor said during an afternoon update on the fatal crash.
“This crash this morning did not have to be so devastating,” Gloria told reporters. “Let me state it very clearly — a street is not a home. It’s not humane or safe to keep allowing our unsheltered neighbors to sleep under bridges, in alleys or in canyons. We must take decisive action to provide more compassionate solutions for people experiencing homelessness. … As mayor, I’ve been clear — we will not turn a blind eye to homelessness. We will deal with it head-on.”
The stretch of street where the accident occurred remained closed for investigation and cleanup into the mid-afternoon.
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