Hemet - UPI
Seven students and an adult were hospitalized Wednesday after a vehicle struck them on a street near Hemet High School in Southern California, authorities said. Riverside County Fire Department officials said three of the injured were in critical condition -- after the driver of a sport utility vehicle ran a red light at a crosswalk in front of the school about 3 p.m. PDT, The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise reported. Witnesses told the newspaper the driver of the SUV, a Hemet High School student, was in a right-turn lane that fed into a parking area but accelerated and went straight, ramming into a crowd of pedestrians in the crosswalk. \"He revved the throttle like crazy,\" student Alex Bissett told the newspaper. The California Highway Patrol took the driver, whose identity had not been released, into custody. School officials said several campus security cameras recorded video of the incident, which was being turned over to investigators. Seven of the hospitalized victims were identified as students and one was an adult. Two people who were struck refused treatment at the scene, fire officials said.