CAR EVENT DISASTER
ONLOOKERS at a Fast And The Furious-style supercar gathering last night told of their horror at seeing 17 people badly hurt in a 70mph race crash.
Bystanders were knocked down “like bowling pins” as a Nissan 350z and Toyota GT86 went out of control and smashed into a baying crowd at the event called Cruise-Herts.
Shock footage showed one car careering into the back of another before both ploughed into screaming onlookers.
Bloodied victims were left crying in agony as others desperately tried to lift the cars off their shattered bodies.
Emergency services, including an air ambulance, rushed to the scene in Stevenage, Herts, and the injured were being treated in hospital last night.
Organiser Rix Sidhu, right, blasted a “rogue” element who took their motors to a main road away from the car park base of the event in order to make a “Snapchat moment” for fans filming on their phones.
Mindaugas “Mindy” Dambrauskas was passenger in one of the vehicles that crashed.
He said: “It happened so quickly. We were knocking people over like bowling pins. It was horrific.
“We went to the left and the driver of the Nissan went to the right.
“I jumped out of the car and saw bodies covered in blood all over the place.
“There were hundreds of people trying to help. A man shouted that we needed to lift the car up because someone was stuck under
aneath the middle of the car. We all lifted and he got free.”
Witness Ciaran Connor said he was praying no-one has been killed”.
He added: “There was literally no time to react. If we were five seconds later we would have been involved in it.”
The Nissan driver was yesterday identified as Julian Castano, from Essex, and the other driver as Toyota sales executive Dominic Brown, from St Albans.
Locals vented their fury on social media and demanded to know why cops were unaware of the event.
One Twitter user said: ‘“Where were the police? Not good enough.” Another added: “I can assure you this is an ongoing problem every Thursday.” But Hertfordshire Police’s Chief Insp Alicia Shaw said: “Police responded as soon as possible and were there within minutes. “Gatherings have taken place there in much, much smaller numbers and we would not normally have people standing in the carriageway or such large numbers by the side of the road viewing the cars driving in such a manner.” Mr Sidhu said: “We are devastated. I’ve been running this for 10 years and we have never had one incident.
“But unfortunately some people went a bit rogue.”
The event has now been shelved.
As of last night no arrests had been made.
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