MARTINSVILLE, Va. — A motorist struck multiple pedestrians following Sunday’s NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway, injuring ''at least 10 people'' according to the track and sending more than one to Memorial Hospital.
Witness Roger Wolfe of Morgantown, W.Va., told USA TODAY Sports a driver in a black convertible was lined up in traffic waiting to exit the speedway's ADA Lot behind Turns 1 and 2. The driver pulled out of line, hit a Jeep, then struck “six or seven people and ran one person all the way over,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe said the driver appeared to be “out of it.”
“He didn’t know where he was or what he did,” Wolfe said. “You could hear the screams for help,” he said. “They must have had 15, 20 police cars and ambulances down there. The guy who got ran over had a sheet up to his neck. I figured he was pretty bad off.”
Track spokesman Brooks Taylor confirmed the incident in a statement to USA TODAY Sports.
“It doesn’t appear that there were any life-threatening injuries,” Taylor said. “Those that could be evaluated and treated here (at Martinsville’s care center) were. Others were taken to Memorial Hospital.”
The driver was taken into custody. It is not known if the driver is among those who were injured.
Wolfe said the front of the driver’s convertible was “smashed up” from striking the pedestrians, who were lined up at a helipad where autograph-seekers gather in hopes of getting signatures from departing NASCAR drivers after the race.
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