Car Plows Into Church Crowd Leaving 3 Dead


Wednesday night, in Redondo Beach, Southern California, a crowd of people leaving church after an event experienced the unthinkable.

Margo Bronstein, 56, was driving a white car along the Pacific Coast Highway when she failed to stop at a red light. The car then plowed into and through the crowd, until it hit another car, stopping the lethal ride.

According to the Daily Breeze, Alan Wells, who lives near the car crash, heard the incident and ran out to help.

“I saw people lying all over the street, and people in the crosswalk were screaming and yelling,” he said.

The crowd included both adults and children. After the car plowed through them, three adults were killed, and as many as 13 others were injured, including five children. The three women who were killed in the car crash were Mary Anne Wilson, 81, Saeko Matsumura, 87, and Martha Gaza, 36.

Michael Tovar, who was in the crowd, told KTTV about the harrowing tale of one of the injured children. The boy was struck by the car and wound up flung across the intersection, where an SUV was unable to stop in time. He became pinned beneath one of the tires.

“The car is on the little boy. And we finally rolled it off the little boy. He had a little tie on. It was scary. It looked like he was in heaven at that point,” Tovar said.

No information on the condition of the boy was available as of Friday morning.

Drivers from nearby reacted as quickly as possible, abandoning their vehicles in order to aid the victims of the car crash.

“It was a very fast reaction,” Mark Milutin, one of the drivers said, adding that his car was stopped at the light. “Two or three people were around each victim.”

Authorities suspect that Margo Bronstein might have been under the influence of alcohol or prescription drugs, when her car plowed into the church crowd. A toxicology report is still in the works, however, and officials have stated that she has no DUI-related prior arrests. In fact, she seems to have a perfect driving record prior to this incident.

The DMV has no records indicating that Bronstein was handicapped, but she was restricted to driving a car with hand-controlled brakes and an additional right-side mirror. Some of her neighbors indicated that she was known to use a motorized wheelchair.

Bronstein was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter.

[Image courtesy of Los Angeles Times]

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