Eleven Joggers In Critical Condition After Driver Hits Group With Car

Photo: Fox 11

The streets near the Sheriff’s Training Academy and Regional Services Center in Whittier, California are in chaos this morning after a driver ran over a group of recruits out for a morning jog. Fox 11 reports that the incident happened around 6:30 am, and the joggers were recruits from the training center.

An official account of what happened isn’t available yet, but initial reports say as many as 15 joggers were hit by the driver, with 11 in critical condition. One neighbor guessed the total number was around 20. Many of those injuries are said to be life-threatening. Emergency personnel were seen triaging patients on the scene, sending some away in ambulances, while medical helicopters were flown in, as well.

The driver was arrested and given a sobriety test, but the results of that test still haven’t been released.

A neighbor reportedly told Fox 11 that the recruits “often jog in the area and run in packs wearing high-visibility vests,” while another neighbor said the car was going “so fast” when it hit the group of joggers. This has yet to be confirmed by investigators, but yet another neighbor said he’d heard that if the driver wasn’t under the influence, and the crash was determined to be an accident, he might not be charged and could be released later today. Again, none of this has not been officially confirmed, but that neighbor said he’d also heard it was a purposeful attack, not an “accident” or distracted driving.

Regardless of what caused the driver to send so many people to the hospital, the mere fact that it happened is an absolute tragedy. We write a lot about how road deaths in the country continue to increase and how dangerous America’s roads are for pedestrians, but it never gets easier to cover these kinds of stories. These are real people whose lives are being turned upside down, and it’s absolutely insane that the richest country in the world doesn’t do more to make it safe to go for a jog or ride a bike.

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Unfortunately, it’s just going to keep happening until we make some major changes in this country.