The Bakersfield Christmas Parade almost ended before it started Thursday night after a truck crashed into a crowd outside the downtown fire station, injuring at least three people, one of them critically, authorities said.
The accident took place at 21st and H streets about 15 minutes prior to the parade’s scheduled start at 6 p.m., Bakersfield Police Department Sgt. Andrew Tipton said.
The parade, however, carried on following a delay. City police said the procession was re-routed along Chester Avenue, two blocks from the crash, with somewhat fewer participants.
Witnesses were shaken by the crash.
“He had just brought her hot cocoa,” said Kathy Switter, a local resident who saw the incident. “And went to go get her food, that’s when he got hit.”
Switter said the first man was struck before the truck proceeded to roll over him. It then continued on, she said, hitting two more men, before it ultimately crashed into the wall that forms a perimeter around the city fire station.
“He never slowed down,” Switter said.
Lawn chairs, some with warm drinks still holstered, remained standing in clusters, unattended. Several residents, some wearing Christmas hats and Grinch sweaters, gathered before yellow caution tape.
According to several people who were present at the time of the incident, an older man had parked a white, F-150 truck in the alleyway next to Today Cleaners at 2033 H St., behind Fox Theater. Three different witnesses, who did not want to be identified, said that the driver smelled of alcohol.
A battalion chief with the Bakersfield Fire Department later said one person was critically hurt and two suffered moderate injuries. The driver of the Ford F-150, he added, was taken into custody, uninjured, on suspicion of DUI.
Witnesses reported the Ford’s driver backed up out of an alley at a fast rate of speed near the cleaners. It hit people as it exited the alley, then crashed into additional victims before crashing into a perimeter around the Bakersfield Fire Department station on H. Some said the man then attempted to put the vehicle into drive and leave, but it would not budge.
Several people reported hearing gunshots, though authorities said that was the ricocheted sound of the driver’s back window breaking.
But before the truck reportedly hit pedestrians, it first struck a Poppi’s Pastrami food truck. Misti Cole, the truck owner, said she was standing outside taking orders when it happened.
“That’s how I support my family and some drunk idiot just smashed my truck,” Cole said.
When asked about whether the parade should go on, Switter and her husband shrugged.
“You know what, bad things happen but God’s in control,” Switter said.
In contrast, Cole said it was “ridiculous.”
“These poor kids just watched people get hit. It’s a mess down here,” Cole said. “You don’t know if these people are dead.”
