Pickup hits trio headed to dinner

A pickup slammed into three people as they crossed the street Friday night to have dinner at the Wall Street Diner, witnesses and police said.

A man and a woman were knocked unconscious after being thrown off the hood of the Ford Ranger. A third woman was thrown to the curb and was complaining of pain to her ribs, witnesses said.

The man and woman were in critical condition late Friday, Spokane Police spokesman Dick Cottam said. The other woman was in satisfactory condition. A fourth man escaped injury after jumping out of the way just in time.

An 80-year-old man was driving the Ford Ranger. The man, whom police would not name at the scene, was taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence, Police Cpl. Jon Strickland said.

The northbound pickup struck the people at about 6:45 p.m. as they were crossing west to east on Wall Street at the intersection with Princeton Avenue. The intersection is directly under a streetlight.

Witnesses said “there was no braking, no nothing,” Strickland said of the pickup driver. “He hit them … and all three were on the hood. He then stopped and threw them into the street.”

Strickland did not know the ages of the three victims, but witnesses who saw the crash and ran to help estimated that all the victims were in their 70s.

Officers barricaded Wall Street for several hours so they could re-create the crash. Strickland said the victims were transported before officers could get their names.

Prior to the collision, 18-year-old Diane Biotti was driving a white Chevy Malibu with her father, Jeff Richards, in the passenger seat. They were following the pickup as it approached the Wall Street Diner.

They both said the pickup was swerving for several blocks and was driving about 25 mph as it approached the intersection with Princeton.

Biotti said she could clearly see the two elderly couples crossing the street as the Ford Ranger in front of her approached them.

“I looked up and she said, ‘Dad, he’s not going to stop.’ Then bam,” Richards said.

Biotti said the driver didn’t hit the brakes “until he was on top of them. They just kind of flew,” she said.

“It’s really painful to not be able to stop it. And then to see them lying there in the street like that. It just makes me think of my grandparents,” she said as she cried.

Ray and M’Liss Bush were inside the Wall Street Diner having dinner when someone ran inside and yelled to call 911. Ray checked to make sure the victims were breathing as M’Liss directed traffic, she said.

“All three had head injuries,” M’Liss Bush said. “The man who jumped out of the way said they were just coming to dinner.”

Ray Bush said the man and one of the female victims were unconscious. The second female victim was crawling on her hands and knees, asking for her husband, he said.

“She was complaining of being in a lot of pain,” Bush said. “She said her ribs were really hurting her.”

The woman regained consciousness. She appeared to have a broken leg. The other man appeared to have serious head injuries, M’Liss Bush said.

Neighbors converged on the crash and provided blankets for the injured people. Biotti and Richards, who had been on their way to go shopping, waited at the scene to give their statements to investigators.

As they waited, three officers had the driver of the Ford Ranger on the sidewalk and were conducting a field sobriety test by asking him to walk in a straight line.

“The guy didn’t even slow down,” Richards said of the driver. “He smashed right into them.”