Santa Monica, Calif. ? A car driven by an elderly man plowed through a crowded farmers market Wednesday, killing eight and injuring up to 45 others as the vehicle hurled victims through the air, smashing through market tents and boxes of produce.

Police said 15 victims were critically injured, and a 3-year-old girl was among those killed along three downtown blocks closed for the once-a-week market, transformed within seconds into a makeshift hospital morgue.

“It was like a hurricane just came down the center of the street,” said Megan Sheehy, general manager of a nearby restaurant.

Police Chief James Butts Jr. said 20 to 30 people had moderate or light injuries.

Butts said the 86-year-old driver told officers he couldn’t stop. “His statement is that he possibly hit the gas instead of the brakes,” he said.

Police did not identify the driver, but he was identified as Russell Weller of Santa Monica by the man’s neighbors. Weller is one of the registered owners of the car, according to Department of Motor Vehicle records.

Butts said the driver was taken to a hospital for a blood test, and initial results found no traces of alcohol or psychoactive drugs such as antidepressants and hallucinogens.

The driver was not arrested, but authorities were considering whether the case was “manslaughter of some type” and investigating whether he was qualified to drive, Butts said.

“There may be some negligence as to his capacity to drive safely,” Butts said, although he added that the man has a valid driver’s license.

Emergency officials assist injured pedestrians after a car plowed through a crowded farmers market in Santa Monica, Calif. According to officials, at least eight people were killed and dozens injured Wednesday when the vehicle sped through the popular pedestrian promenade.

The man left police headquarters by late afternoon. Walking unsteadily with a cane, he hugged and smiled at people who picked him up from the police station.

Butts said he did not have an estimate of the car’s speed. Witnesses said the red 1992 Buick was moving very fast along Arizona Avenue.

“Sixty miles per hour and it wasn’t slowing down. It was flying. And then people down, dead and everything,” said David Lang, manager of a shoe store along the market route.

“I heard a car just hit, bang, bang, bang,” said Mojgan Pour, 38. “I heard people screaming. By the time I looked, I never even saw the car. I tried to help a man, and he died while I was helping him.”

Bahram Manahedgi, 50, said one person was on the hood of the car when it finally came to rest, and a woman was crushed beneath it.

Manahedgi said that when he went to pull the driver out, “he was an old man. His eyes were open, and he was alive. I said, ‘Do you know what the hell you did?’ He said, ‘No.’ I just opened the door, I pulled him out.”

A crowd gathered around the car and “wanted to beat him up,” Manahedgi said. “I said, ‘He’s an old man, leave him alone.”‘

Mary Roney, who has lived two doors from Weller and his wife for 30 years, said he has never had any trouble driving and she did not know of any health problems.

“A more careful, gentle, loving person you’ll never find,” Roney said. She described Weller as active in the community, including serving on a library board and tutoring students at Santa Monica High School.