A woman lying on a Wildwood beach was seriously injured when she was struck by a police department pickup truck driving on the sand, officials said.
The woman was hit on the beach at Rio Grande Avenue at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, and emergency responders took her to a local hospital for treatment. The woman's boyfriend told 6ABC she suffered multiple broken ribs, three fractured vertebrae and a lung injury. She is expected to survive.
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Wildwood police had not provided more details about the crash, including the names of the woman and the person who was driving the pickup, as of Friday morning, and a police spokesperson did not offer a timeline for when that would happen..
Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano told 6ABC the crash was an "unfortunate situation" and said an investigation is ongoing.
Witnesses told Wildwood Video Archive a crowd saw the police vehicle hit the woman.
"The Wildwood police officer ran this lady over on the beach while he was swerving in and out of the beach, way too close," Ryan Cortes, who saw the commotion on the beach, told the blog. "Citizens nearby had to scream at the truck to stop, and they had to gather to lift the vehicle off of the woman's torso — it was truly horrible."
6ABC also reported that witnesses described how people on the beach helped lift the truck off the woman.
Earlier in August, five people were injured in a golf cart crash during the Wildwood Police Department's National Night Out event at Fox Park on Aug. 6.
At the event, a juvenile was driving a golf cart programmed to simulate drunk driving — as a way of teaching about its dangers — when the vehicle lost control and struck four adults and a child standing outside an enclosed area for the demonstration. A police officer had been in the passenger seat of the golf cart at the time of the crash. Authorities said they had opened an investigation into that incident, but have not provided any updates.