San Francisco woman seriously injured after hit-and-run accident pushes her under a driverless car
A woman in San Francisco was seriously injured on Monday after a hit-and-run driver struck her, pushing her onto the path of a self-driving car, which trapped her, CBS News reported.
The incident took place Monday night in the SoMa neighborhood of the city, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. First responders received a 911 call for a pedestrian trapped underneath an autonomous vehicle.
The SFFD said that the single victim was "extricated from beneath the vehicle using rescue tools" and was transported to a local trauma center with multiple injuries.
Captain Justin Schorr of the SFDD told CBS News that the woman was found "pinned" beneath the left rear axle of the vehicle, which was unoccupied.
Schorr said that the self-driving car's operating company, Cruise, was immediately contacted, and able to disable the car remotely, after which rescuers were "able to get the car up off her," using the "jaws of life" to free her. The victim was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. No update to her condition has been provided.
SFFD did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
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Cruise responds
Cruise, in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, detailed the incident stating they are actively working with police to help identify the driver who initially struck the victim.
"At approximately 9:30 pm on October 2, a human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV," the car company stated in their post. "The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV."
"The AV then braked aggressively to minimize the impact," the company stated, while the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. The AV was kept in place at the request of police.
Cruise, owned by General Motors, is one of the two companies operating fleets of driverless cars in the city by the Bay. The other one is Waymo, owned by Google. Cruise runs the majority of its 240 Chevy Bolt electric cars in San Francisco and has pilot programs that offer driverless rides to the public.
Earlier, in January, San Francisco firefighters had to smash in the front window of a Cruise driverless car to get it to stop running over hoses at a three-alarm fire.
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Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.