Spectator at sideshow in Pocket area struck by fleeing car, police say
One person was hospitalized as vehicles fled a “sideshow” exhibition in the Pocket area Saturday night, Sacramento police said.
A gathering of vehicles near Pocket Road and Alma Vista Way began to disperse as police responded about 10 p.m. Saturday, Sacramento Police Department spokesman Officer Marcus Basquez said.
The injured party was an apparent spectator and was taken to a local hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, according to the Sacramento Police Department’s daily police log.
“Someone was injured while some vehicle was doing donuts in the intersection,” Basquez said. That driver then fled the scene.
The sideshow activity then moved onto a nearby stretch of Interstate 5, where California Highway Patrol units took over the response effort, Basquez said.
It was not clear how many vehicles were involved in the sideshow, or when it finally dissolved.
No arrests have been made yet in relation to the incident, Basquez said. Authorities are looking through helicopter video recordings to search for license plates.
“Nobody has been readily identified yet, but the investigation is still active,” he said. “Obviously, a lot of people scattered once police showed up.”
Sideshows are illegal driving demonstrations that involve groups of drivers taking over intersections, city streets, freeway lanes or parking lots to do tricks with their cars including burnouts and donuts. Spectators often watch from close proximity, sometimes in lanes of traffic themselves.
Basquez said Sacramento’s sideshows usually pop up on weekend nights.
Earlier this year, CHP North Sacramento spokesman Officer Mike Zerfas told The Bee following a particularly large show in North Highlands that sideshows happen nearly every weekend in the Sacramento region, and appear to have become more frequent in the past few years.
