Dennis RomeroUpdated at the bottom with an eyewitness' account of what happened. First posted at 1:32 p.m.
A woman collided with a car as she tried to cross a street outside San Diego Comic-Con today in a bizarre accident that took the Twilight fan's life.
The accident at Harbor Drive and Fifth Avenue, just down the street from the San Diego Convention Center, where Comic-Con officially starts Thursday, was reported at 9:22 a.m., San Diego police Lt. Andra Brown told the Weekly.
Here's the weird part:
It appears the woman actually ran into the side of the car as she tried to cross Harbor, a wide and busy street, Brown said:
Apparently she ran out into the street, saw oncoming traffic, tried to stop and tripped, fell or stumbled into the passenger side of a car.
The victim, whose identity cops wouldn't release, suffered “severe head trauma” and died at a hospital at 9:51 p.m., Brown told us.
The driver of the car, a 67-year-old man, “stayed and cooperated,” the lieutenant said. He did not do anything wrong, she said.
The victim was there, reportedly …
The street scene in San Diego during last year's Comic-Con.; Credit: Shannon Cottrell
… to check out a Twilight event at the wildly popular convention.
The San Diego U-T reported that the woman had been camped out near the Convention Center for a chance to see a Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 panel discussion.
Tributes to the victim were pouring in via Twitter, where the hashtag #RIPTwiFanG was trending.
[Added at 1:48 p.m.]: There's an online petition asking for a moment of silence in honor of the victim, whose name is said to be Gisella, during the panel discussion.
Meanwhile, Examiner.com has posted a possible full partial ID as well as links to reported photos of the victim as she camped in line before the accident.
[Update at 4:02 p.m.]: A Twitter user named Cherokee Girl says she saw the accident. She seems to place some of the blame for the accident on convention security guards who she says warned people camping out for the Thursday panel that they would have to move in an hour only to revise that time to 20 minutes.
That, she says, might have prompted the victim to join a crowd that was “rushing across the street” to retake their places in line. The witness says the victim “made eye contact” with the driver before running into the car.
Security decided we had to move once again and told us it would be an hour before we would do so. She went with friends across the street thinking there would be plenty of time before they had to return. Security then came back and told everyone they had decided to move us in 20 minutes. They were rushing back to the line to gather their things to move.
I received info from someone who went with her to the hospital that they were rushing across the street, the car turned in front of her, she made eye contact with the driver, she tried to stop to avoid the car, stumbled and fell hitting her head on the pavement. The car didn't hit her.
… This horrible accident has caused all of us in line to bond and be even closer. Lots of tears and hugs and we are planning to honor Gisella in some way tonight or tomorrow.
See also:
*Photos of San Diego Comic-Con 2011.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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