SEATTLE -- A man has been arrested and charged with vehicular assault after driving his car into three pedestrians in downtown Seattle near Pike Place Market Thursday.
Seattle police say it happened at First Avenue and Stewart Street shortly before noon.
Witnesses say a man, confirmed by police as Travis Clinton Lipski, 39, driving a silver Subaru west on Stewart suddenly drove toward a couple on the sidewalk, clipping the woman and hitting her husband, throwing him over the hood of the car.
"He was still coming at a good speed as he was coming down this way and that's when he slammed into a truck," one witness told KING 5 News.
Witnesses told police the Subaru continued down the hill with the man still on the hood of the car. It hit a second woman, pinning her in between the car and a produce truck parked in front of the store Sur La Table.
"I saw this tremendous crash, and and I heard this lady hollering and screaming," said witness Emigdio Ramos, who saw the incident from an apartment window.
The crash caused the man to be thrown off the hood of the car and into the street.
"There was a lady, she must have been a nurse, she was working on him, and she must be using mouth to mouth," said Ramos.
Firefighters and other emergency responders had to rescue the pinned woman.
All three pedestrians were taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment. The man thrown over the vehicle, in his 50's, is in intensive care in serious condition. His wife, also in her 50's, is in satisfactory condition. The woman who was pinned against the truck, age 25, also remains hospitalized in satisfactory condition.
Officials evaluated Lipski for signs of being under the influence at the scene. He was arrested for two counts of vehicular assault and was booked into the King County Jail.
"I couldn't tell anything wrong with the gentleman's demeanor maybe he was in shock," a witness said.
"I've lived here over 40 years and I've never witnessed anything this traumatic for myself personally," said James Brown, witness.
Friend thinks cause was mechanical
"I'm very sorry for all the folks and for Travis and the whole situation is terrible. With that said, Travis is a very decent person he worked very hard," said Jeff Pearson, who has known Lipski for more than two years.
Pearson doesn't believe the cause of the accident was medical or drug-related. Pearson says, earlier this week, Lipski asked for help fixing the brakes on the car.
"He called me just two days ago to say his brakes were going bad on the vehicle and, now, we see the unfortunate results of that," said Pearson. "I don't think we should judge him out of the gate. I have a feeling this was entirely mechanical."
Lipski is a standup comedian who moved to Seattle a year ago. He and Pearson are working together on a documentary about standup comedy called "The Unbookables." Lipski is one of the performers featured in the movie.
KING 5's Glenn Farley, Elisa Hahn and Tonya Mosley contributed to this report.
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