UPDATE (Monday, Nov. 6): Suspect in Railway Museum crash in Perris ID’d, Thomas event to continue

As a suspected intoxicated driver barreled his SUV along a walking path at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 5, disbelieving parents threw their children – some still in strollers — over a fence and scattered out of the way.

Remarkably, only two people were reported injured – and none apparently were struck by the speeding vehicle.

“I thought I was seeing things,” said Cathy Campos, was at the museum with two daughters, said in a phone interview. “I thought he was going to mow those people down.”

Casey Amoelibi was at the popular “A Day Out with Thomas” event, which features an engine made to look like the Thomas the Train cartoon character, with her husband and two children. The event also featured a second train, named for the cartoon character Percy, and a jump house.

Amoelibi said she was preparing to take a photograph of her husband holding their 2-year-old when the SUV bore down on her. Her husband pushed her and her 4-month-old to safety.

“A DUI didn’t cross my mind,” Amoelibi said by phone. “I was wondering, ‘Does this guy have a bomb? Let’s get out of here as fast as possible.’ It seems impossible that he didn’t hit anybody.”

The driver, who name was not available Sunday night, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, said Deputy Michael Vasquez, a spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

The incident happened just before 4:30 p.m.

Adriana Woods said she was aboard Percy with her husband and toddler about 4:30 p.m. Her mother, Campos, was near the loading platform near A and Alpine streets, and a sister was elsewhere at the museum.

I was there. Missed a lot of people, driver was going very fast. Fortunately our family is safe. Just shaken. — Zapp (@zappbrandnxor) November 6, 2017

Woods was sitting next to the window when she saw a man driving an SUV with a big dent in it come out of a residential area and travel perpendicular to the train.

“I saw that he was going really fast,” Woods said.

Just as it appeared the SUV would hit the train, the driver made a 90-degree turn and traveled alongside the train.

“Some of the girls who were on the train and another family were freaking out about it,” Woods said.

She then lost sight of the SUV, but then it came into Campos’ vision as she stood on the platform. The man drove onto the railroad tracks, “and I was flabbergasted,” Campos said.

The driver went up onto a walkway and drove through a gate as about 30 people walked toward him, said Campos, who estimated the walkway was 11 feet wide.

“They were just picking up strollers with their kids and throwing them over the fence so they wouldn’t get hit,” Campos said.

Said her daughter Adriana: “My first thought it was terrorism, he was going to attack everyone. I was scared for all the kids at the event.”

Ken Romero said he saw the driver smash the gate.

“That is when we started to hear screaming,” he said. “The individual looked crazy, long hair flying everywhere.”

His mind flashed back to Tuesday, Oct. 31, when police said a man fatally struck eight people on a bicycle path in New York.

Sheriff’s deputies pulled over the man as he tried to drive away, Vasquez said.