Teen Arrested After Stolen SUV Hits Woman, Nearly Reaches Melbourne Marathon Course
A 16-year-old was arrested after allegedly driving a stolen SUV through Melbourne's city center, striking a woman in her 50s and coming within meters of the Melbourne Marathon route, which 20,000 runners were using at the time.
MELBOURNE — A 16-year-old boy was arrested after allegedly driving a stolen SUV through Melbourne’s city center on Sunday morning, striking a woman and coming within meters of the Melbourne Marathon route while tens of thousands of runners and spectators filled the area, according to Australian media and police.
The chaos began at about 10:30 a.m. local time, when the teenager allegedly drove a stolen white Ford Escape along the tram tracks on Elizabeth Street, mounted the footpath near the intersection with Flinders Street, and struck a woman in her 50s standing at the busy intersection. The SUV also hit several parked cars and street signage before turning left onto Flinders Street, according to The Age and Xinhua.
The woman, a resident of the Southbank area, was taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries to her upper body, Ambulance Victoria confirmed Sunday afternoon. Mobile intensive care and advanced life support paramedic crews attended the scene at about 10:45 a.m.
Near-miss on the marathon course
Witnesses described a terrifying scene as the vehicle sped toward the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets — which had been blocked off as part of the Melbourne Marathon route. “He was meters from breaking onto the marathon course outside of Flinders St Station,” one witness told the New York Post. “Police with their guns drawn. Terrifying.”
The driver made a U-turn after encountering the road closures and sped back down Flinders Street with police in pursuit. A traffic-control truck parked at the Flinders Street and Swanston Street intersection blocked the vehicle from reaching the runners, witnesses said.
Bystanders scrambled to pull the injured woman off the road. “Bystanders had to actually drag the injured person off the road so that they wouldn’t be hit again because this guy was not slowing down,” said Kirk Pearson, the owner of Project Zero Coffee on Flinders Street, who told the Herald Sun he watched the car strike the woman.
Arrest and investigation
Victoria Police said the Dandenong-area boy was later arrested on Beaconsfield Parade in Albert Park and was expected to be interviewed by investigators. Police allege the SUV was stolen from a business in Cranbourne South at about 2 a.m.
Investigators have ruled out the incident as an act of terrorism or a targeted attack, police said.
The timing amplified the danger: although the full marathon’s starting gun had gone off at 6:15 a.m., thousands of runners in the half-marathon were still racing when the incident occurred, having set off at 9:45 a.m. Roughly 20,000 participants traveled through the city in the event, starting on Batman Avenue and heading west along Flinders Street past the station before looping through Albert Park and finishing inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Reporting based on coverage by the New York Post and The Age.
