7 killed as car hits Md. drag-race crowd [View All]

[nebula]

Source: Associated Press/Yahoo

By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer
Feb. 16, 008

ACCOKEEK, Md. - A car plowed into a crowd that had gathered to watch a drag race on a suburban road early Saturday, killing seven people and injuring at least four, police said. Witnesses said they had just watched two cars in the illegal street race speed past when a car without any lights on came up behind them and veered into a crowd of about 50.

"There were just bodies everywhere; it was horrible," said Crystal Gaines, 27, whose father was among the dead. Gaines said she grabbed her child but could not help her father, William Gaines Sr., 61. "He wasn't breathing, he wasn't moving," she said. "His body was in pieces."

A white sedan hit people standing on the side of Route 210 around 3:40 a.m., Prince George's County Police Cpl. Clinton Copeland said, but it wasn't clear whether that was one of the cars involved in the race. A tractor-trailer that came by shortly afterward may also have struck someone on the road as it tried to avoid the crash, he said.

"It's probably one of the worst scenes I've seen," Copeland said. "This is a situation that could have been avoided, and it's a very tragic situation."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080216/ap_on_re_us/drag_racing_deaths;_ylt=AmppteP5I1B3aclgIcEzXdGs0NUE

---

Someone must be really busy handing out all the Darwin awards today.