> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Chaos, eerie rainstorm descend on downtown - URL: https://www.smdp.com/chaos-eerie-rainstorm-descend-on-downtown/ - Published: 2003-07-17T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T02:32:22.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: local, Downtown, #archive-import *Witnesses help treat victims during chaos* *By JASON AUSLANDER Daily Press Staff Writer* In a matter of seconds early Wednesday afternoon, downtown Santa Monica was transformed into a dark, eerie and unrecognizable place. Chaos reigned along Arizona Avenue as by-standers rushed to help the wounded, sirens blared the arrival of emergency personnel and hordes of news helicopters began a buzzing vigil in the skies above that would last until after nightfall. Then, as the dead were covered and the depth of the tragedy started to sink in, the skies suddenly opened and a rare summer downpour added another layer of sorrow that seemed to magnify the pall of the afternoon. The combination of noise from the sirens, people shouting and helicopters above was nearly deafening. Some witnesses to the carnage were shaking, crying and swearing while others were in shock and couldn’t speak at all. All along Arizona, from Fourth Street where the elderly man first entered the twice-weekly farmer’s market to west of Second Street where the battered 1992 Buick Le Sabre finally came to rest, was littered with debris. A mangled baby stroller lay near the car, while behind it stood a wide trough of destruction that included smashed fruit, crushed bouquets of flowers, bloody gloves and towels, splintered wooden tables and green and white tents blasted askew. Downtown Santa Monica ground to a standstill as the area was cordoned off with yellow police tape and crowds formed around the periphery. Police officers attempted to interview dazed witnesses and spray-paint circles around pieces of evidence — from car parts to body parts — strewn along the speeding car’s path. A Red Cross helicopter swooped between buildings ferrying the most critically ill to area hospitals. Witnesses and onlookers near the makeshift triage area at Fourth and Arizona seemed to be moving in slow-motion while a hurricane of action swirled around them. Members of the city’s clergy were on scene too, blessing the wounded and administering last rites to the dead. Santa Monica officials, including Mayor Richard Bloom, City Manager Susan McCarthy and City Attorney Marsha Moutrie, watched the scene with the rest of the awed crowd at Fourth and Arizona. The carnage began at 1:47 p.m., less than 15 minutes before the market was scheduled to close. “It was like a storm coming through,” said Charity Culpert, information director at the Farmers Market. “I had to dive away. Stuff was flying everywhere. “I thought for sure the car was going to hit me. I dove over a table at the last second and to this second, I have been thanking God I’m still alive.” Said Karen Hernandez, a shopper at the market, “I was standing there and all of a sudden a fruit stand came flying at me. I was like ‘What the (f---)!?’And the next thing I know I am in this pile of people on top of each other. As I got up, I saw a fatality just a few feet away. My son hurt his head, but thankfully it looks like he’ll be OK. “It’s good to know he’s alive because a lot of other people can’t say that about their loved ones out here.” Cayman Hernandez- Slis, 10, Karen’s son, was shaken up. “Things were flying everywhere,” he said. “I still don’t know what I was hit by.” Rob Piubeni, an advertising account manager at the Daily Press and a trained emergency medical technician, arrived on the scene minutes after the accident occurred. “The first thing I saw was a DOA,” he said. Piubeni began performing triage on three or four of the victims. Then he discovered a woman in her late 30s or early 40s who was lying between Third and Second streets with severe head injuries, bleeding from her eyes and ears, with brain matter in her mouth and her legs folded underneath her. After he was able to clear the woman’s airway, a paramedic met up with him. Together, they moved her to the triage area and Piubeni continued to hold her hand and talk to her. However, the woman died. “We lost her vitals. Her eyes weren’t responsive,” he said later, glancing at his bloodstained pants. “When her eyes went stone cold, she was still squeezing my hand.” > “We lost her vitals. Her eyes weren’t responsive. When her eyes went stone cold, she was still squeezing my hand.” — — ROB PIUBENI Santa Monica resident Joe Legler of the Winchester Cheese Co., a regular merchant at the market, was also affected by the accident. “I’m quite upset right now,” he said. “This is the worst disaster in the area I can think of in 20 or 30 years. What can I compare it to? I don’t know right now.” Jorge Uranga, who works in the building across from where the car came to rest couldn’t believe the scene either. “I had just come in from lunch and someone told me there was something serious happening outside,” he said. “To me it seemed impossible. I was out there five minutes before and everyone was having a good time.” Two hours after the tragedy, the clouds drifted away and the sun came out again. But many who happened to be in downtown Santa Monica on Wednesday afternoon barely noticed. (Daily Press Staff Writer Patrick Kinmartin contributed to this report). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/071703-02_01.jpg) ABOVE: Civilians assist local police and community service officers carrying a victim to the triage area near Fourth Street and Arizona Avenue. (Photo: John Wood/Daily Press) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/071703-02_02.jpg) ABOVE: Civilians assist local police and community service officers carrying a victim to the triage area near Fourth Street and Arizona Avenue. (Photo: John Wood/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 17, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071703.pdf?ref=smdp.com)