3 people died in fiery crash after hitting San Francisco taxi

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Three people died Saturday night in a fiery car crash after it was allegedly doing donuts and speeding down the street. The car hit a taxicab at the intersection of Brannan and 9th streets and burst into flames. The area was closed to traffic for hours due to the accident investigation.

Just before 9:30 p.m. CHP officers say they saw a white Chevy sedan doing donuts near 5th and Bryant in San Francisco. They tried to pull the driver over, but he took off and blew through several red lights. The CHP says that is when the officer stopped the pursuit because he thought it was too dangerous and turned off his lights, but the driver kept going.

CHP officers said they last saw the car heading westbound on Brannan before it crashed.

CHP spokesperson Officer Vu Williams explained further why the CHP pursuit was stopped. He said, "Because it's on city streets with traffic that's at that area of the city, there are also pedestrians out on the roadway, and especially when that vehicle started to run red lights... in his judgment it became too dangerous to continue the pursuit. That's why he discontinued that."

A witness says he heard three cars racing down the street, looked and saw a white car racing a blue Viper or Corvette and a black Charger. He said the cars were flying down the street about 80 mph and then a minute later five or six cop cars followed behind them before he saw the white car had crashed.

The white car hit a taxicab and burst into flames. One of the passengers was ejected from the vehicle. The taxi driver was taken to the hospital with injuries.

A number of friends were at the scene in tears over the accident. Some of those at the scene said their friends were at the NFL Experience earlier on Saturday and thought they were headed home.

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