Car Speeds Down Maple, Hits Girl, Cars Long Trail Of Damage Left By Out-Of-Control Vehicle

Thu., Sept. 18, 1997

By Robin Rivers robinr@spokesman.com

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Friday, Saturday 19, 1997): Correction Incorrect street: An out-of-control car smashed into cars and hit a girl along a stretch of Cedar Street on the South Hill Wednesday night. A story in Thursday’s Regional section incorrectly named the street.

An out-of-control car roared down the South Hill Wednesday night at speeds up to 60 mph, smashing into vehicles and slamming through the yard of a home at Maple and 16th Street, police said.

A small girl playing on the lawn couldn’t escape the rampaging car.

Miranda Chesterman, who was thrown several feet, was in the emergency room at Deaconess Medical Center late Wednesday with a broken arm and internal injuries.

Police don’t know what caused the motorized melee.

The middle-aged man driving the Toyota Celica, who wasn’t identified, suffered minor injuries.

“It could have been a medical condition. Maybe he had a heart attack,” said Officer Cliff Walter. “It’s just lucky everyone is alive.”

Here is what police believe happened: A man driving north on High Drive about 6 p.m. lost control of the late-model Toyota at the 29th Street intersection. The car struck a curb and began racing down the four-lane boulevard, slamming into the back of a Honda sedan at 17th and Maple.

The Honda rolled several times, coming to rest on its side in the yard of a home at 1323 W. 16th. A woman driving the car crawled out the sun roof, escaping with minor injuries.

Still heading downhill, the Toyota next clipped a small pickup, sending it spinning. That driver wasn’t injured.

Across the intersection, the Toyota jumped the curb into the front yard of Bruce and Rebecca Chesterman’s home at 1324 W. 16th where Miranda was playing.

After hitting the girl, the car cut a path through the Chestermans’ wood fence, back yard and back fence, continuing into an alley. Then it hit a Honda hatchback and got tangled in a chain-link fence before coming to rest in a Maple Street home’s side yard.

A group of skateboarders who witnessed the crashes called police.

, DataTimes

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