Eight killed in market crash horror

EIGHT people were killed and dozens injured yesterday when a speeding car with an 86-year-old man at the wheel veered out of control and ploughed through a crowded street market in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica.

A three-year-old girl was among those killed when the 1992 Buick LeSabre crashed through barricades at one end of the street and through the open-air market, sending bodies flying, shortly before 2pm local time, police and witnesses said.

Fifteen people were critically hurt, with between 20 and 30 others suffering moderate to minor injuries in what Santa Monica Police Chief James Butts called "the most devastating accident scene that I have witnessed in 30 years of law enforcement".

The driver walked away from the incident and was interviewed by police before he was released, Chief Butts said. The man, who walks with a cane, told police that he thought he was stepping on the brake and instead hit the accelerator.

Chief Butts said the man, who could still face criminal charges, was lucid and did not appear to have suffered from any medical condition that contributed to the accident.

The popular Santa Monica street market was transformed into a disaster scene as bleeding shoppers were treated where they fell amid the wreckage of produce stalls and their contents while helicopters evacuated the critically injured.

Chief Butts said it was not yet clear how fast the car had been moving.

"I don't have a speed estimate but it was going fast enough to destroy or demolish some of these stands and kill eight people," he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent seven investigators to Santa Monica, spokesman Terry Williams said.

"We've launched a team of seven investigators to the Santa Monica accident involving an elderly driver," he said. "The issue we're going to be looking at is medical oversight of non-commercial drivers."

The incident seemed likely to rekindle a national debate over allowing people of advanced age behind the wheel.

In 1999 a California state senator proposed a law requiring motorists over the age of 75 to take driving tests to renew their licences.

The bill was proposed after a 15-year-old Santa Monica girl, Brandi Mitock, was struck and killed by a 96-year-old driver while crossing a street But after lobbying by the American Association for Retired Persons, which claimed age discrimination, the legislation was rewritten to instead target motorists with impaired vision and references to elderly drivers were removed.

Thousands of people attend the farmer's market, which is held weekly on a closed street near the beach in Santa Monica.

The maroon LeSabre sat at the end of the street, with a deceased person covered by a yellow tarpaulin at its front end and two shoes resting on the roof as investigators pored over the scene.

"I was walking back to my office block on Second (street) when I heard screaming and a bunch of people running, falling to the ground," witness Jason King said.

Toni Zeto, a Santa Monica teacher, tearfully said she was still searching for her boyfriend, Steven Vodantis, who she believed was at the market at the time of the crash. "As soon as I knew something had happened here, I called him on the cell phone and left a message just telling him what had happened," Ms Zeto said. "I have heard nothing since and it is such a horrible situation." She added: "I don't know what to think or feel at the moment."