Officials: Driver Charged In Chain-Reaction Crash That Injured Jersey City Officers, 4 Others
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A driver faces multiple charges after authorities said he caused a chain-reaction crash that injured three police officers and four people Sunday in Jersey City.
Keith Jeffers, 30, is charged with four counts of assault by auto, knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident with serious bodily injury and driving while intoxicated, according to Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill.
The incident happened just after 8 p.m. Sunday.
"We hear a big boom like a cannon went off we looks down the street and there a bunch of cars smashed up, people lying all over the ground," said witness Steve Stoeckel.
Authorities said Jeffers was speeding in a maroon van on Ocean Avenue near Myrtle Avenue when his vehicle rear-ended another car.
The impact sent that car into a parked car and then up onto the sidewalk, striking two pedestrians and three Jersey City police officers, Morrill said.
"We just seen the van going like 100 miles," witness Anton Sandifer told CBS2's Janelle Burrell. "It ran the red light and the car that was coming down here, it hit the other cars and that's how everybody got hurt."
Melisa King watched it happen from her front yard.
"Flying down, he hit another car," said King. "That car hit another car and that car hit another car."
A video posted on Instagram shows fellow officers and paramedics treating a female officer moments after the impact.
"She was screaming and crying and stuff," said Sandifer."She was pinned between the cars and they pull her out a little bit."
"She was holding her leg and it was like three other people," said witness Arlene Wright.
The two pedestrians and two people who were inside the parked car that was hit were taken to Jersey City Medical Center where they were treated and released.
Two of the three police officers were treated and released Sunday night, but one officer remains hospitalized in stable condition under observation, Morrill said.
Two passengers in Jeffers' vehicle were taken to Christ Hospital, but refused treatment and left.
Morill said Jeffers tried to flee the scene, but was detained by police.
The investigation is ongoing.
