Driver strikes 9 pedestrians near MacArthur Park, police say

A driver veered off the road and struck nine pedestrians at a busy intersection near MacArthur Park in Westlake on Saturday morning, police said.

Six people were taken to hospitals, with one adult seriously injured, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Their injuries were not life-threatening, said Officer Norma Eisenman, a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman.

The crash occurred shortly after 9 a.m. near Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street, where the sidewalk was crowded with street vendors, Eisenman said. The driver told police he left the road because he thought he had a gun pointed at him, she said. He did not appear to be impaired, Eisenman added.

Video from the scene showed a pickup truck that had come to a rest after smashing into at least one vendor‘s stall.

Police hadn’t yet determined whether the driver should face charges and said the investigation would take some time to complete due to the size of the scene.