A vacationing woman soaking up the sun at a beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, was reportedly run over by a patrol car called to the scene for an ordinance violation.
“The officer was out there in the line of duty on a call for service. Horribly, he ran over a victim who was lying on the beach,” Wildwood Police Chief Joseph Murphy confirmed to the Press of Atlantic City on Friday.
The victim, who was visiting the area for the long weekend, was sunbathing on the beach on Wednesday afternoon when he was allegedly run over by a Ford F-150 pickup truck from Wildwood police, who were called to the scene.
Except that according to a witness to the incident, the police officer at the wheel did not see the victim on the ground before being stopped by the screams of witnesses while his vehicle was still on top of the woman.
“Everybody was gathering around yelling at the driver, ‘Stop! There’s somebody under your truck! You hit somebody!’ A bunch of guys near the scene said we had to lift the truck, the front of the truck, to get her out,” Rose Simone told WPVI-TV, according to Fox News.
According to the Chalfont, Pennsylvania, woman, the victim was wearing dark clothing but was lying on a beach towel at the time of the incident.
The injured woman was reportedly taken to hospital where she suffered several broken ribs, three fractured vertebrae and a lung injury, but her life was not in danger, her boyfriend told WPVI-TV.
Police thanked witnesses on the beach who quickly helped pull the woman out from under the vehicle.
“There was a lot of help from the people on the beach,” the police chief added. “The civilians on the beach did an incredible job.”
It is not yet clear whether the police officer involved in the accident will be punished or not.
“It was clearly an accident, but one that probably could have been avoided,” Rose Simone added to the American media.
