Teen watching illegal street stunt show injured in hit-and-run, California police say

A teenager watching an illegal street stunt show suffered broken bones after being hit by a car doing “burnouts,” California police say.

The driver fled after the accident at the so-called “sideshow,” which 911 callers reported at 11:40 p.m. Friday, July 28, Tustin police said in a news release. Callers also reported street racing.

Sideshows are illegal takeovers of streets or intersections where drivers show off their vehicles and perform illegal stunts in front of spectators that can number in the hundreds or thousands.

Officers responding to the 911 calls found 300 vehicles parked along the street while drivers performed burnouts and spectators set off fireworks and shined lasers, police said.

They also located a spectator who had been hit by a car doing burnouts, police said. They were taken to a hospital in stable condition with multiple broken bones.

A video shot by the injured teen before the crash shows two vehicles spinning out “dangerously close to spectators” before going dark when the teen is hit, KTLA reported.

The teen spectator was “seriously hurt,” KCAL reported.

“It’s extremely dangerous,” Lt. Ryan Coe with the Tustin Police Department told KCAL. “These spectators get out in the middle of it trying to capture great cellphone video for their Instagram pages and their social media platforms.”

The driver, who fled, faces hit-and-run charges if found.

Police towed 51 vehicles and issued 20 citations, the release said.

Anyone with information can contact a detective at 714-573-3218 or jyuhas@tustinca.org.

Tustin is about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County.

This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 9:42 AM with the headline "Teen watching illegal street stunt show injured in hit-and-run, California police say."