Woman hurt after reckless driver sends big red ball rolling outside Tacoma Target store
A driver crashed into a concrete sphere outside a Tacoma store that then rolled toward a crowd and hit a woman, according to court records.
Prosecutors charged the 33-year-old driver with vehicular assault, reckless endangerment and driving with a suspended or revoked license in the third degree.
Charging papers give this account of what happened:
Police responded to the crash about 1:15 p.m. Sunday outside the Target at 3320 S. 23rd St.
An officer found the injured woman on the ground. She had blood on her head and her hip and was taken to a hospital with a possible broken hip and concussion.
Witnesses told the officer the driver was speeding through the parking lot “when all of the sudden she drove up onto the sidewalk on the north side of the roadway striking a large concrete red ball that was affixed to the front of the store,” the declaration for determination of probable cause said. “The large ball came off of its steel post and rolled northeast toward a crowd of people and the ‘Target’ building.”
The sphere hit the woman and a pillar of the store, “leaving an imprint of the large ball,” the probable cause statement said.
The driver almost hit others. One witness pulled his wife and child to safety behind a pillar.
Witnesses said the driver had been talking to herself or someone they couldn’t see before the crash, and an officer who spoke with her thought she seemed confused. She allegedly spoke quickly, didn’t seem able to hold still and said she’d taken methamphetamine the day before and hadn’t slept.
She pleaded not guilty at arraignment Monday and was ordered held in lieu of $30,000 bail.
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Woman hurt after reckless driver sends big red ball rolling outside Tacoma Target store."
