4 dead after drunk driver crashes into Vegas bus stop

Four people were killed and eight others injured after a speeding car went airborne and smashed into a Las Vegas bus stop early Thursday morning, reports AP.

The driver faces four counts of driving under the influence and will be charged in absentia while he is recovering in the hospital.

Las Vegas police Sgt. Richard Strader told CBS that several people were in the vehicle and had to be extricated following the crash.

Witnesses reported seeing the bodies of four people laying where they died, covered by bright white sheets.

A local man told the Las Vegas Sun that he thought he heard a bomb detonate when the accident occurred. He told the newspaper he saw four bodies on the sidewalk with blood all along the street, sidewalk and a light pole. 

"It's a pretty horrific scene out here," Las Vegas police officer Laura Meltzer told AP. She said some of the victims had been dismembered.

The vehicle eventually landed 15 feet from where it hit the bus stop and was so mangled that authorities initially had difficulty determining its make and model. 

Police said the driver appeared to be intoxicated. "First responders said they smelled alcohol and he even said something to the effect that he had been drinking," Strader told AP.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that as rescue workers struggled to free a man from the wrecked car, he asked loud enough to be heard by a witness, “Did I make it to the liquor store?”

Meltzer said the accident was particularly tragic because the driver had been drinking. "This person made a choice" to drive under the influence, she said.