San Francisco is a hilly city, and naturally there are a lot of staircases. But they’re usually used by pedestrians, not as ramps for vehicles.
Nest security camera footage of the intersection of 19th Street and Sanchez Street in the Dolores Heights neighbourhood shows a 1998-2002 Lincoln Town Car slam through a guardrail, fly off a staircase and land on its roof.
The car can be seen launching off the top of the hill at the 1:27 mark.
The crash took place on Saturday evening.
The car takes out a tree on the way down, but managed to avoid hitting any pedestrians or parked cars despite a group of people walking through that very spot just seconds beforehand.
Additional footage shows a camera view from the dead-end Cumberland Street at the head of the staircase, revealing the car barely slows down before barrelling through the guardrail.
Two of the occupants take off running up the stairs, while the third occupant takes longer to extricate themselves from the wreck.
ABC7 News reports the occupants weren’t injured and police are still looking for them. The Lincoln involved in the crash was stolen from a man in a carjacking, and five people were allegedly involved in the theft.
One witness, Giorgi Kvirkvia, told the news outlet she helped the occupants out of the car before they fled.
Photo credit: SFPD
“One phrase that I still remember was like, ‘We got three minutes, we need to run,”‘ the witness said.
“A bunch of stuff came out of the car – I saw, I think two tasers and then the cops in the end – they also found a gun.”
“There was a woman pulling out a guy, all bloody. And the guy had a full face mask, all black, dressed in black. She was in black, red hair, yelling at them, ‘We have three minutes ’til the cops come! We have three minutes! Hurry up!'” witness Michael Perez told CBS News.
“There was another guy still stuck in the car and they were like, ‘Just leave him! Leave him!”
