2 Dead After Driver Crashes Outside a Restaurant in Washington, D.C.

It came to rest on the sidewalk, where mangled tables and wicker chairs were strewn. Cmdr. Duncan Bedlion of the Metropolitan Police Department credited other drivers with helping to call attention to the crash during a news conferences on Friday.

“They honked their horns,” Commander Bedlion said. “They flagged the officers down, and we were able to get here right away and secure a scene. Of course, it’s very sad, an area where we know people have lunch every day.”

Those injured were 30 to 80 years old, Vito Maggiolo, a spokesman for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, said on Friday. The authorities said that the first 911 call came at 12:18 p.m.

The police said that the driver of the crashed vehicle, a 2008 Subaru Forester, was cooperating with the authorities.

“It was truly an accident from what we can tell right now,” Commander Bedlion said.

A man who answered the phone at the restaurant on Friday declined to speak about the crash, saying, “I’m worried about these people’s lives right now.”

Ms. Pulles, a retired hotel catering director, said that a car was pulling out of a gas station near the restaurant as the driver of the vehicle that crashed was approaching the block where the accident took place.