Driver's taxi permit at risk following Stingaree crash
SAN DIEGO — The investigation into the taxi cab crash that left 36 people injured outside a Gaslamp Quarter nightclub continued Tuesday
Daly, 52, has been licensed to drive taxis since Dec. 1, 2003, according to the Sheriff’s Department. Drivers must submit fingerprints, be cleared through U.S. immigration officials, pass a driving test, have a good driving record and pass an annual drug test, said sheriff’s licensing manager Blanca Pelowitz.
Police are processing evidence seized from Daly’s Clairemont home, including medication, an iPhone, cameras, a laptop computer, thumbdrives and Arabic writings, according to a search warrant obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Meanwhile, the Encinitas mother of two who suffered the brunt of the taxi’s impact was preparing for another round of surgeries to fix her mangled lower right leg, which was pinned against the wall and the taxi.
Witnesses of Stingaree taxi crash recall violence, chaos
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO — The crowd in front of the swank Stingaree night club was like any other at closing time on an early Saturday in the Gaslamp Quarter. Patrons laughed and chatted on the sidewalk as they walked to their cars, waited for taxis and lit up cigarettes.
That changed in a matter of seconds, as a taxi slowly plowed into dozens of clubbers standing outside the front door. San Diego police are investigating the possibility that the 48-year-old driver, whose name authorities refuse to release, blacked out or fell asleep at the wheel.
The violence and chaos that followed was unlike anything anyone had seen in the Gaslamp Quarter before, witnesses said Sunday.
At least 23 people were injured, including a 42-year-old woman whose leg was amputated below the knee after being pinned against the wall by the car.
“It was by far one of the most gruesome things I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Joshua Montana, who ran to the woman’s aid.
Like most witnesses, Montana had just left the club on Sixth Avenue when the cab hit at 1:54 a.m.
“I heard a sound, turned around and here comes a cab straight through a crowd of people. I ran back and immediately held the lady pinned against a wall.”
The driver was able to back up a bit before a mob — thinking he was trying to flee the scene — descended on the cab.
“They immediately dragged him out of the car,” the 31-year-old San Diegan said. “He tried to run for his life. People were rather upset, kicking and punching. He was saying, ‘Oh my God, oh my God!’ when trying to pull the car away.”
The driver was later taken to a hospital with a broken nose.
Police have been unable to verify various witness accounts that the cabdriver was swinging scissors at people.
With the woman free, Montana laid her on the ground. Chad Starkey, one of Stingaree’s lead security guards, ripped off his necktie and used it as a makeshift tourniquet, tightening it above the knee of her mangled leg. The 25-year-old former Marine was only recalling what he’d been trained to do in the past.
“The biggest thing on my mind was to stop the bleeding,” Starkey said. “The training goes into play. I was just reacting to the situation. Just doing my job.”
Meanwhile, the woman kept asking about her injuries, saying her leg was burning.
“I had to lie to her, saying, ‘It’s OK, just a big cut,’” Montana said. “She was really calm.”
“After looking at the video, I’m incredibly proud of my security team. They really got control of what looked like a war zone. It was definitely two-and-a-half minutes of serious, serious chaos. It’s certainly not in the playbook to deal with something like that.”
She wrote that she had walked to her car before finding out via text message that people in her party had been hit by the wayward taxi. Soto ran back to the club to watch a wild scene unfold.
“The streets were filled with people. Yelling. Screaming. Fighting. Crying. I could hear the terror in people’s screaming,” Soto wrote.
She said she found her brother-in-law on the floor with his shoe ripped off his foot and tears in his jeans. He shoved Soto’s sister-in-law out of the way of the cabdriver, but she still got hit.
Their friend, Linda Vista resident Paul Jimenez, who is an emergency medical technician, was also struck and rolled onto the hood of the cab
“It’s traumatizing to see a cabbie run into 23 to 25 people,” he said. “I won’t get that out of my head for awhile.”