Two vehicles were stopped at a red light in downtown San Francisco on Monday evening, the Washington Post reports – a regular car and a Cruise robotaxi. Both vehicles advanced as the light turned green, according to witness accounts and videos recorded by the Cruise vehicle’s internal cameras and reviewed by The Post. As the cars moved along, the pedestrian crossed into the lanes in front of them and was hit by the regular car, according to the video. The video shows the victim rolling onto the vehicle’s windshield and then being thrown into the path of the driverless car, which stops as soon as it collides with the woman. According to Cruise spokeswoman Hannah Lindow, the autonomous vehicle “braked sharply to minimize the impact” but was unable to stop before running over the woman and coming to a stop. Photos published by the San Francisco Chronicle show the woman’s leg sticking out from under the left rear wheel of the car.
“According to Cruise, police had ordered the company to abandon the vehicle, apparently with the pedestrian trapped underneath,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Also from the San Francisco Chronicle: Austin Tutone, a bike delivery driver, saw the woman trapped under the cruise car and tried to calm her down while they waited for first responders. “I told her, ‘The ambulance is coming’ and that she would be OK. She just screamed.” He shared a photo of the aftermath with The Chronicle, which appears to show the car tire on the woman’s leg. San Francisco firefighters arrived and used their sharp teeth to lift the car off the woman. She was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with “multiple traumatic injuries,” said SFFD Capt. Justin Schorr. According to the hospital, the victim was in critical condition late Tuesday afternoon.
It appears that when the cruise car felt something under its rear axle, it stopped and turned on its hazard lights, Schorr said. Firefighters blocked the driverless car’s sensors to alert the cruise control center. He said Cruise representatives responded to firefighters and “immediately disabled the car remotely.” More from the San Francisco Chronicle: “If someone is trapped under a vehicle, the most effective way to release them is to raise the vehicle,” Sgt. Kathryn Winters, a spokeswoman for the department, said in an interview. If a driver were to move a vehicle with a person lying on it, “there is a risk of further injury occurring.” Once the person is freed, the car must remain in place while police collect evidence, including “the location of the vehicle(s) before, during and after the collision,” said Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya, another spokeswoman.
The human driver who hit the pedestrian immediately fled the scene and has not yet been identified.