Car plows through North Hollywood crowd

We're following breaking news out of North Hollywood tonight. At least three people are dead, and several others are critically hurt after a car slams into a crowd near a metro station. Sky Fox live overhead right now. Good evening. You're watching LA Live News tonight. I'm Laura Diaz. It happened just before 6 o'clock on Lancashire Boulevard near Chandler. Fox 11's Ed Laskos is live near the scene with what we know right now. Ed? Now, Laura, chaotic scene here, a deadly scene. Three people die. They were on that sidewalk in that crowd when that out-of-control minivan slammed into them. Three dead, three others rushed to the ER, critical condition, including the driver of that out-of-control vehicle himself. Joe, into this horrible story we go. Lancaster, Cross Street Chandler, there's the scene itself, and there is what's left, the back end of that white, silver. Minivan as it plows up onto the sidewalk right in front of the entrance here of the North Hollywood Metro station. That area right there, usually crowded as it was again today, late afternoon, just happened a few minutes before 6 o'clock tonight, crowded with vendors, food vendors, and that vehicle slammed in right into that area, sending debris flying all over the place. To the video we go, a better look at this scene here. Again, it's Lancaster, the vehicle, according to LAPD, traveling southbound, so it's going in this direction. And for some unknown reason, it veers to the right, up onto the sidewalk and slams into that crowd. We're talking about when this happened just before 6 o'clock. Very busy area here in North Hollywood. The metro stop here, a lot of folks in this particular area coming up out of the subway. Some others going across the street, catching buses to continue with their commute. Others coming up, grabbing a bite to eat, supper time, dinner time. As their commute goes on, the Arts District here in North Hollywood just reeling from all of this. Witnesses say it was unbelievable. Unbelievable, unbelievable. Unbelievable is what they said. The vehicle traveling, high rate of speed and just out of control and in a blink of an eye. Listen to this witness. I just saw a whoosh and everything kind of like went up and then went down instantly. So that's how quick the events was, up to the point that I really thought, I knew it was a car, because it was like out of nowhere, I thought the car went inside the station. That's how the visual looked like. When I started walking, my reaction immediately was like, whoa, like it was, whoa, like that's such an unbelievable image to see in front of you and then I saw the casualties. The driver is a male. mid 60s when he was extracted out of the vehicle he was in the car he he wasn't coming out so normally when you you're in the accident you come out right but he he was in the car so don't know if he was in shock or what was going on but we have to be extract extracted out of the vehicle And this is video from that witness we were just listening to as he heard the wish and he walked up. This is actually seconds after this horrific crash. Chaos all over the place. Folks screaming. They can't believe what happened. This also just sent debris flying all over the place. That area there is by the steps and the escalator coming up from the train. The subway station itself here in North Hollywood sent debris flying in that area. The vehicle itself never actually went into the station itself. Stopped right there on the sidewalk. But look at all that debris. There's chaos. There are people down on the ground who are hurt, who are still alive. Two are taken by first responders off to the ER. And then, of course, they finally get that driver out of the vehicle. And they're running tests on him right now to determine if he was under the influence, if he had a medical emergency, exactly what led to this deadly crash. As we come back out live, LAPD Chief Jim McDonald here saying, and as you can imagine, Metro has cameras all over the place. And that's a big part of their investigation. They're looking at all of that video, even as we speak right now, to try. to determine exactly what happened. There was first reports that maybe another vehicle, a second vehicle may have been involved that forced this white. Minivan out of control up onto the sidewalk, but the captain telling us it doesn't appear to be the case, but they're still analyzing all of that video to try to figure out what happened here. As far as Metro is concerned, they're saying that their station is open, open for through tonight, but also for a first thing in the morning for the commuters. Very busy area here. But the thing is, they're saying you really got to go to the main entrance, which is over there all the way over on the other side of Lancashire. If you know the area where all of those arches are, the yellow, red arches, orange arches, that's the main entrance in and out to the station. So that's the one. be using as there's no interruption in service for commuters. But a wild scene up here again happening really in the heart of the evening rush hour. And Laura, as you know very well, in the heart here of North Hollywood, very busy area, especially that time. Peak time is what the captain was saying. Yes, a lot of people go there because it's such a social place to be. Now, your witness was so descriptive. In describing what it was like when that vehicle came barreling through. But I have to tell you, Ed, as you widen out and we see the accident scene there again, to look at that, it almost looks as though something exploded. Yes, and that's pretty much what he was saying, that witness, that in the whoosh, and then a second later he just sees everything flying and just stuffed debris. All over the place, food items, parts of that vehicle, you're right, it's amazing, it does look like it was some type of explosive situation because of the force of that vehicle, and again, it's hard to imagine, you think where that vehicle is, you think it may have come from across the other side of Lancashire, or maybe came on one of the cross streets, which isn't the case, but actually it was coming in this direction, coming this direction and quickly veers off to the right, again, from what we've been hearing at a pretty good rate of speed, and as the witness was saying, you know, to do this kind of damage and go by him, think about it, he said it was There was a blur in his eyes, but he felt the air, the whoosh of the vehicle going by as it sped very close to him. Other than the one witness you spoke to, were you able to speak to other people who perhaps came to check on loved ones? We know, of course, that it was Metro, so maybe mom, dad, cousin, sister always comes into that particular spot. Did you hear from anybody like that? No, no, we haven't heard from anybody like that. There's been some folks coming down, checking with the police, but LAPD is still trying to work and identify the victims involved here. So, no, we haven't had anything of that sort at this point. All right. Ed Laskos, thank you so much for that live report there on the scene.