Watch as an emergency room in the US fills with smoke after a car crashed into it, killing one person (Credit: Stephen Hughes)
Footage shows the aftermath after a car that crashed into a Texas hospital’s emergency room, killing the driver and injuring five other people, including a child with life-threatening injuries.
The car smashed into the lobby of the US emergency room at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center shortly after 5:30pm on Tuesday, fire officials said.
The driver, who remains unidentified, was pulled from the car and received CPR but died in the ER, authorities added.
Photos showed a silver sedan with a mangled front end sitting entirely inside the lobby, and a video from a witness shows the room in disarray, filling with smoke as someone is carried over the debris.
The crash was under investigation and there was no immediate word on the cause, but the Austin Police Department said it appeared to be unintentional.
Five people in the ER lobby were injured. One was treated at the hospital while two adults and two children were taken to other hospitals, authorities said.
Of those transported, one child had critical life-threatening injuries and an adult had “serious, potentially life-threatening injuries” while the other two victims had non-life threatening injuries.
Eight patients who already were undergoing treatment at the hospital were being moved to other facilities, said Dr. Peter DeYoung, chief medical officer for the hospital.
Dr. DeYoung said the ER doors were damaged and an aquarium inside was struck, but overall the building was in good condition.
No ambulances were being accepted, although the ER was still taking walk-ins who would be treated at a makeshift triage area at the ambulance bay, he added.
“We’re hoping to kind of regroup here over the night and see where tomorrow leaves us,” Dr. DeYoung said.
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