STILLWATER, Okla. (Reuters) – A car with a suspected drunk driver at the wheel barreled into crowds watching

a homecoming parade at Oklahoma State University on Saturday, killing four people and injuring more than 40 others, authorities said.

Witnesses told of bodies being flung dozens of feet into the air as the gray Hyundai Elantra plowed into the throng at the intersection of Main Street and Hall of Fame Avenue in Stillwater, some 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Oklahoma City, at the end of the parade.

Stillwater Mayor Gina Noble and local police said the car crashed through barricades and struck an unmanned police motorcycle before carving through the mass of spectators.

“At first we thought it was part of the show,” Konda Walker, a 1991 graduate of OSU, told the local Stillwater News Press. “People were flying 30 feet (9 meters) into the air like rag dolls.”

Representatives for OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City said the hospital received eight victims from the crash, five of them children, ranging in condition from good to critical. One of those patients, a 2-year-old child, later died.

People watch from the side as the injured are attended to at the scene of a car crash after a car d …

Stillwater Medical Center said in a statement that its staff had treated about 40 patients aged 2 to 65. About half of them had been released by Saturday evening.

The driver, identified as 25-year-old Adacia Avery Chambers, was taken into custody on suspicion of driving while under the influence of alcohol, said Captain Kyle Gibbs of the Stillwater Police.

“I’ve been here 29 years and I can’t recall an incident of this magnitude,” Gibbs told reporters at the scene.

The suspect does not appear to have been a student at Oklahoma State University, Gibbs said. Mayor Noble said in a statement that Chambers was a resident of the city.

Megan Lantz of Ponca City, Oklahoma, told the Oklahoman newspaper that about 100 people were standing on the corner at the time the car, going between 45 and 50 mph (72-80 kph), struck the crowd.

“We were facing the parade and heard tires squealing and then started to hear the car hitting things and people and there was screaming and people running away,” Lantz, 32, told the paper for a story on its website.

The suspect’s father, Floyd Chambers, 47, told the Oklahoman in a phone interview that he learned about the accident through social media and was stunned.

“I can’t figure this out. This is not the person that’s my daughter. … I can’t imagine alcohol being involved. She is not an alcoholic that I’m aware of,” Chambers said, adding that he would pray for the families and friends of the victims.

Hours later the car was still resting, crumpled, against a lamppost on Main street, the intersection littered with clothes, blankets, lawn chairs and water bottles belonging to the victims. Streets were blocked off and secured by members of the National Guard.Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said on Twitter that she was en route to Stillwater and that her thoughts and prayers were with those affected.

After the crash, Oklahoma State University said it decided against canceling its homecoming football game, which went ahead as planned against Kansas and was dedicated to the victims. Some 25,000 students attend the university.

“We are shocked and heartbroken by this horrible tragedy. The Oklahoma State University Homecoming parade is the most wholesome of events and to have it marred in such a way is incomprehensible,” the school’s president, V. Burns Hargis, said.

“The Cowboy Family is devastated by events at this morning’s homecoming parade,” the school said on its website, referring to the college mascot.

(Reporting by Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton in Stillwater, Heide Brandes in Oklahoma City, Frank McGurty in New York, Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles.; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Cynthia Osterman and Richard Chang)

 

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — The latest on the fatal crash at the Oklahoma State homecoming parade (all times local):
9:30 p.m.

Police say the number of people injured in an Oklahoma State University homecoming parade crash has grown to 44.

Capt. Kyle Gibbs gave the new total in a release Saturday night. He also says the 2-year-old who became the fourth person to die was a boy and that the three others killed were all adults.

Adacia Chambers is suspected of driving under the influence and has been arrested. Police say she plowed into the parade crowd Saturday in Stillwater.

They say a car driven by the 25-year-old Stillwater woman struck an unoccupied motorcycle of an officer working security at the parade, then went into the crowd.

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7 p.m.

Hospital officials say a 2-year-old has become the fourth person to die after a woman suspected of driving under the influence plowed into an Oklahoma State University homecoming parade crowd.

The child’s death was reported Saturday evening in a news release from OU Medical Center and The Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. The child died at The Children’s Hospital.

Police have said a car driven by 25-year-old Adacia Chambers struck an unoccupied motorcycle of an officer working security at the parade Saturday in Stillwater. The vehicle then went into the crowd.

In addition to the four deaths, more than 30 were injured. They included eight who were airlifted to hospitals with critical injuries.

Chambers was taken into custody on the DUI charge.

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4:30 p.m.

The father of a woman accused of crashing her car into the crowd attending the Oklahoma State homecoming parade says he can’t believe his daughter could have done it.

Floyd Chambers, of Oologah, told The Oklahoman that he learned through social media that his daughter — Adacia Chambers of Stillwater — was arrested for driving under the influence following the Saturday morning crash that killed three people and injured dozens.

A woman who answered a call to a phone number listed for Floyd Chambers told The Associated Press no one was available to talk.

Chambers said his daughter is timid and that he could not imagine alcohol being involved. Police are awaiting blood tests to determine if Adacia Chambers was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

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4:15 p.m.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren has issued a statement expressing sympathy to those killed and injured when a car crashed into people attending the homecoming parade at Oklahoma State University.

“Our prayers go out to the Cowboy community,” Boren said in the statement issued Saturday afternoon.

A moment of silence for the victims in the crash was held before the Oklahoma-Texas Tech game in Norman.

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3:15 p.m.

Police have updated the number of people injured in the Oklahoma State parade crash to 34 and say eight of them are in critical condition.

Three people were killed when a motorist plowed her car into a crowd of spectators at the homecoming parade. Originally Stillwater police had said 22 others were injured, but they updated that total Saturday afternoon to 34.

The homecoming game was being played Saturday afternoon against Kansas. The crowd observed a moment of silence before kickoff.

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3 p.m.

A football stadium crowd has observed a moment of silence for the victims of a fatal crash hours earlier at Oklahoma State’s annual homecoming parade.

The flag was lowered to half-staff at Boone Pickens Stadium Saturday afternoon before kickoff of the No. 14 Cowboys’ homecoming game against Kansas. Officials had considered postponing the game but decided to play it as scheduled and honor the victims.

After running out onto the field before the game, most of the Oklahoma State players knelt in prayer by the OSU sideline.

Three people were killed and dozens injured when a car careened into a crowd at the homecoming parade. The driver of the car was arrested on a DUI charge.

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1:30 p.m.

Police have released the name of the woman arrested on a DUI charge after the crash that killed three people at the Oklahoma State University homecoming game.

Stillwater police say the woman taken into custody is 25-year-old Adacia Chambers. They didn’t identify her hometown.

Three people were killed and 22 injured — eight critically — after the motorist slammed into the parade Saturday morning in Stillwater.

The homecoming game was being played Saturday afternoon against Kansas. University officials said there would be a moment of silence to honor the victims.

1:15 p.m.

Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis says OSU’s game against Kansas will still be played Saturday despite a crash involving a motorist who plowed into the school’s homecoming parade, killing three people and injuring 22 others.

Hargis’ comments came in a news conference hours after the Saturday morning crash. Police have arrested the woman who was driving the car on a charge of driving under the influence.

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12:55 p.m.

Police say the driver of a vehicle that crashed into a crowd of spectators at the Oklahoma State homecoming parade has been arrested on a charge of driving under the influence.

Stillwater police Capt. Kyle Gibbs said the woman’s sedan crashed into the unoccupied motorcycle of an officer who was working security at the route, then into the crowd of people.

Gibbs says three people were killed and nearly two dozen injured during the crash Saturday morning. He says eight of the injured were airlifted to hospitals with critical injuries.