There has been a trend in Orange County over the past few months of spectators at intersection takeovers getting injured by the vehicles as they do donuts and other stunts.
This happened in Santa Ana on August 10, 2023, at around 10:30 p.m. during a street takeover of the intersection at West 17th and North King streets, as reported by County News.
A spectator was struck by a vehicle during a street takeover at an intersection, Thursday night.
The intersection takeover lasted an astounding half hour and only ended when a spectator was struck by a vehicle. The drivers of the takeover vehicles quickly fled after the accident.
As usual the SAPD arrived quite late and no one was arrested. The reality in Santa Ana is that there are very few police officers on shift at night. The SAPD has to spend a huge part of their annual budget paying for the pensions and health benefits of their retired officers and the SAPD is very short on officers at the moment. It seems that police candidates do not want to come to Santa Ana likely due to the vicious battle waged by the former head of the Santa Ana police union, Gerry Serrano, and the Chief of Police, David Valentin.
The spectator who was injured took off from the scene and did not receive any medical treatment.
It is extremely dangerous to get close to these takeovers to watch. Some cities are citing the spectators.
A recent street takeover in Tustin backfired when the Tustin Police Dept. called in the Irvine Police Department and blocked off all the streets around the takeover. Dozens were arrested and many cars were impounded.
