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The Zombie Hit-And-Run Of San Diego Comic Con 2014

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The regular Zombie Walk through downtown San Diego Comic Con was this year's source of Convention-related serious injuries, and in a rather public fashion. These two videos have been the main source of reportage.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1W6s5179uM[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXmv_UoXTPk[/youtube]

The Wrap reported,

A deaf family with small children was inside the vehicle when it slowly rolled through a large crowd of pedestrians, the San Diego Police Department said in a statement given to TheWrap. The incident happened as Zombie Walk participants lined the streets near the corner of 2nd and Island Avenues just after 5:30 p.m., police said. The deaf family was waiting for the Zombie Walk participants to cross the street, so that they could proceed. But after several minutes, "the 48-year-old male driver slowly rolled forward trying to get out of the area," the SDPD statement said, adding that the man's children "were afraid of the crowd." Several people from the crowd of zombies and other pedestrians then "surrounded and began punching the car," police said. The attack left the vehicle's windshield shattered. During the chaos, a 64-year-old woman was struck and "sustained serious arm injuries when she fell under the car," police said. The man's condition was not known. "The crowd then chased the car on foot as the family drove toward a police officer down the street," police said. The driver stopped and told police what happened.

zombiewalk2014map

The official Twitter account of the Zombie Walk sees things differently,

And points people to comments on this video report,

San Diego, California News Station – KFMB Channel 8 – cbs8.com

Such as San Diegan Bill Davison who writes,

I am truly amazed at the number of people trying to defend the driver. That shows me that there are a lot of people here who do not understand the rules of the road. I suppose that's not so surprising. It's more surprising that they think that they know the rules when they clearly don't. They can't have done well in driver's education and they probably just barely passed their driving tests. That should have been a clue that they aren't experts. So once again: CVC 21950 requires motorists to yield to pedestrians at all marked crosswalks and at all unmarked crosswalks at intersections. If you have an intersection which does not have a marked crosswalk and it doesn't have a "no pedestrian crossing" sign then it has an unmarked crosswalk. In these situations, pedestrians ALWAYS have right of way. The driver broke this law as soon as he started to move slowly into the crowd. Also, right of way or not, it's psychotic to try to drive through a group of pedestrians, even slowly. It takes a special level of self entitlement and a severe lack of basic human decency to think that's OK. CVC 27001 prohibits the use of the horn except to ensure safe operation. His use of the horn was to tell people to get out of his way because he was going to force his way through. He broke this law as well. After things escalated, he also violated 23103 and 20001 and arguably committed assault with a deadly weapon. I don't like this being referred to as an accident. This was no accident. It was intentional aggressive and dangerous driving.

Or Jennifer Muzquiz who writes,

Traffic control at the beginning sections of the walk was fantastic and the police escort were quick to shut down and keep roads shut for the group. The chief of police was even with the group for almost half the walk. From what I can tell, the crowd didn't react well to the driver trying to force his way into the intersection when there were clearly pedestrians in front of him. They were trying to protect others from being hit by stalling him. Foolish to sit on a car, especially with a driver who is clearly not going to stop – and I would never condone their vandalizing the car – but he is obviously breaking the law and how did the driver know what was on the other side of the people? Someone could have been having a medical emergency and they were onlookers or stopping traffic to keep that person safe. There's a lot of hypotheticals, but he didn't take anyone's safety into account, including that of his family's (recklessly driving through and away from the scene). Also, none of the crowd appear to be part of the actual zombiewalk group and it's unfair for the media to say any of these people involved were participants in the walk. They were likely spectators (who were asked multiple times to stay on the sidewalks) and/or passerby in the crosswalk.

The Zombie Walk safety guidelines say,

Do not block foot or auto traffic, as it is a safety risk and can also be illegal depending on the situation.

But, as the Zombie Walk Facebook page says,

No zombies touching car that we can see. Man sits on hood of car, after car attempts to force way through people in crosswalk, nobody beating on car… we expect an immediate correction and retraction from ALL media who have claimed otherwise

With Paige Mistelle Tallent saying

The only zombie involved with the accident was me… and thats only because I flew to the aid of the injured woman. I was closest. And my instincts and training kicked in.
A couple other spectators quickly followed suit. Together we tied the shirts off our backs to the victims bleeding and bone exposed arm… horray for the community standing together in crisis.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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