Fleeing driver causes pile-up on Walnut St.

A 22-year-old woman caused a three-car pileup at the busy 38th and Walnut streets intersection that sent her and two other women to the hospital on Thursday afternoon. The woman was attempting to flee the scene of a minor fender bender. Marguita Brewington has been charged with simple assault and reckless endangerment, according to University Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Tom King. All three drivers survived and are now in stable condition, according to University Police Chief Maureen Rush. Brewington was heading southbound on 38th Street at about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday when she got into a minor accident with another car at 38th and Sansom streets. Several plainclothes Philadelphia police officers witnessed the accident and stopped to write up a report. According to Rush, while the officers were writing an accident report, Brewington attempted to flee, running a red light at the intersection of 38th and Walnut streets. She just missed hitting a University police officer who was attempting to direct traffic. Brewington's car then struck two other vehicles, including a white Mazda and a red Jeep, which crashed into a traffic light and flipped over. The driver of that vehicle had to be cut out of the car. Neither University Police nor Philadelphia Police would release the name of the driver of the Jeep. Brewington's car sustained lesser damage, concentrated on its hood. Philadelphia Police chased Brewington and apprehended her, and all three women were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. HUP Nurse Administrator Kathy Beer said the driver of the Mazda, Drexel University student Valerie Kuzmick, was released from the hospital yesterday, but Brewington is still a patient. Beer was unable to provide information about the third driver. The accident, which occurred in the heart of rush hour, snarled up traffic for hours, Rush said. Since the intersection was a crime scene, the vehicles could not be cleaned up until police concluded their investigation. "It was a standstill in every direction," Rush said. "It created a gridlock out there." The traffic jam was compounded because police needed to sandbag the gas and oil leaking out of the cars involved in the accident.