Car Plows Through DMV Office; 23 Hurt : Accident Triggered ‘Mass Hysteria,’ a Witness Says

A car--driven by a Tijuana man who apparently suffered a stroke--smashed through a wall of a Department of Motor Vehicles branch Thursday in Chula Vista and plowed through a crowded office, injuring 23 people.

Four people were seriously injured, including one woman who was pinned between a wall and the 1977 Plymouth Volare.

Police identified the driver of the car as 64-year-old Augustin Medina. Medina was taken to nearby Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista after suffering what hospital spokesmen said was a mild stroke. Due to a shortage of bed space, he was later transferred to Mercy Hospital in San Diego, where a hospital spokeswoman said he was listed in good condition Thursday night.

The Mercy spokeswoman said Medina, who has high blood pressure and diabetes, had suffered a temporary decrease of blood to the brain.

Police have talked to Medina about the accident but have not yet determined its cause. State DMV records show that Medina visited the office Thursday morning and renewed his car registration. DMV records also show that his car is registered to an address in Chula Vista.

Beatrix Vargas, who lives at the house on Tremont Street, said Medina is a family friend from Tijuana who uses her home as a mailing address.

“My husband called (Medina) at the hospital, and he told him that his leg started to fall asleep and he lost control of the car,” Vargas said.

“He said the car accelerated. . . . He doesn’t know what happened.”

Shortly before 11 a.m., Medina’s car crashed through the south wall of the DMV office, where about 15 people were waiting at Window 6 to register vehicles and pick up license plates.

Some witnesses said they at first thought a bomb had gone off.

“Once inside, the vehicle hit a counter,” turned 90 degrees to the right, “then traveled about 50 feet and hit our east wall,” DMV Supervisor John Acuna said. “To have gone over that embankment outside, he must have generated quite a bit of speed.”

The approximately 150 people in the office scrambled to get out of the way, witnesses said.

A DMV official said the Chula Vista office is the second-busiest in the county, serving about 2,000 people daily.

The accident could have been worse, a DMV official said, because the crash took place during a slow business period.

“It wasn’t a peak time,” said Brad Campbell, office manager. “It’s normally slower just before the lunch rush hour.”

Witnesses said the interior of the DMV office was filled with the screams of panicked customers and the loud noise of the crash.

“It was mass hysteria,” Mark Wilson said.

Billy Shaw, a Chula Vista car salesman, said the accident was like a “big earthquake. Bodies were flying everywhere.”

Another man, who was brushed by the car, said he watched as the vehicle knocked people down like “toy soldiers.”

“They hit each other and fell down,” said 39-year-old Valdez George, who suffered minor bruises and scrapes. “He went straight and took everyone out. . . . There was a bunch of dirt flying all over. People were screaming.”

Felipe Gutierrez was near the front of the line at Window 6, waiting to pay for his car registration, when the runaway car smashed into him, dragging him by the right leg for 30 feet.

“I just saw people were screaming and the (parts of the building’s) walls that were on the car itself,” the Spanish-speaking Gutierrez said through an interpreter. “I truly didn’t know it was a car until it was over me.”

Gutierrez, 41, said he watched helplessly as other people stepped over his body to apprehend the driver, who he said tried to “flee” after his car crashed to a stop. Gutierrez was listed in stable condition Thursday night at UC San Diego Medical Center with a broken right leg. He will probably require surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Most seriously hurt was Maria Morfin, 31, of Tijuana. She was transported by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition and underwent surgery for internal injuries.

Morfin was sitting along the east wall of the office with her sons, Eddie, 12, and Richard, 8, waiting for her husband when the car pinned her to the wall, witnesses said.

In addition to Medina and Maria Morfin:

- Scripps Hospital in Chula Vista treated and released Eddie Morfin and Earnest Young, 64, of San Diego.

Young was using a pay phone outside the east wall, where Medina’s car came to rest, when he was knocked several feet to the ground after the car made impact.

After the crash “you couldn’t hear anything but people screaming,” Young said.

“My wife was on the other end of the phone and she was hollering, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ ”

- Chula Vista Community Hospital treated and released Richard Morfin, two men and a woman.

- San Diego Physicians and Surgeons Hospital treated and released two men.

- Coronado Hospital treated and released one woman, while a man was kept overnight for observation.

- Paradise Valley Hospital treated and released two men and two women.

The other victims suffered minor injuries and refused treatment, authorities said.

The accident left a gaping hole in the south wall of the 13,400-square-foot building. Plaster and wood were strewn the length of the office, and the east wall was pushed out from the foundation about three feet.

DMV officials said they called construction crews to fix the structural damage so the office could open by noon today.

A state architect will have to issue a structural clearance for the building before it can be opened, officials said.

Times staff writer Nancy Reed contributed to this story.