San Francisco Firefighters Rescue Woman Trapped Under Driverless Car

Oct. 3—A female pedestrian was severely injured after being run over and trapped under a Cruise driverless vehicle in downtown San Francisco on Monday night, officials and the autonomous taxi company said.

The woman was initially hit by a driver who launched the woman in front of the Cruise vehicle and fled the scene, Cruise said in an emailed statement.

San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca said in an emailed statement that the preliminary investigation suggests "another vehicle that was not an autonomous vehicle may have been initially involved in the collision, but the vehicle or driver were not present at the scene during our investigation."

The woman was walking near Fifth and Market streets at about 9:30 p.m. when she was first struck by the car that was "traveling in the lane immediately to the left" of the Cruise vehicle, Cruise said on social media.

Upon impact with the car, the woman was thrown into the path of the Cruise vehicle that ran over her, Cruise said. The company added that the autonomous vehicle "braked aggressively" to minimize impact.

The Cruise vehicle stayed at the scene and was operating in autonomous mode without a human driver when it ran over the woman, police said.

The fire department responded to the collision at approximately 9:35 p.m. and found the woman pinned underneath the car, according to Capt. Justin Schorr, a spokesperson with the San Francisco Fire Department.

Rescuers found the woman beneath the left rear axle of the vehicle, according to Schorr. The controllers of the Cruise AV were contacted and disabled the car remotely, he said.

"The focus was rescuing her and lifting the vehicle off of her," Schorr told SFGATE. "Members of our heavy rescue squad used hand tools and hydraulic spreaders to lift the vehicle and pull her out. Those hydraulic spreaders are commonly referred to as the jaws of life."

The woman was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital with "multiple life-threatening traumatic injuries," Schorr said.

Cruise officials appeared at the scene shortly after the collision.

"They were working closely with police," Schorr said. "I turned around and they were there."

He added, "Most of the time when we respond to a collision, there's a driver to tell us how long the person has been under the car. There was no driver, no witnesses. But due to the Cruise technology, the police have more information than they do for most collisions."

The police department said the condition of the woman was unknown on Tuesday morning.

SFGATE homepage editor David Curran and Bay City News contributed to this report.

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