An incident involving two cars driving side-by-side at high speeds on St. Paul's East Side resulted in one of the vehicles going out of control, flipping onto its roof and ejecting one of its passengers Friday afternoon.

Police spokesman Paul Paulos said authorities weren't defining the 3:40 p.m. incident as a street race, pending further investigation, but they also weren't ruling it out.

"It was two cars traveling at a high rate of speed, side by side," Paulos said.

But many neighbors believe there was little doubt.

"They had to be playing chicken. They were really going fast," said Corey Lundy, 18, who was at home when the cars sped past his front window.

The cars were eastbound on Minnehaha Avenue near Kennard Street, occupying both the single eastbound and westbound lanes, when the car in the eastbound lane apparently lost control and flipped onto its roof. It wasn't clear if the cars had made contact before the crash.

Residents witnessed the aftermath: a young man lying in the road, unresponsive, and two more young men -- including the driver -- still in the upside-down white Honda Civic. One of them also appeared to be unconscious, Lundy said.

The second car, which had a large dent in its side, had stopped farther up the street -- its driver and lone occupant obviously distraught. A gouge had been made in a stone retaining wall on the eastbound side of Minnehaha, where one of the cars had hit it.

The three men in the Civic were taken to Regions Hospital, where there conditions had not been released early Friday evening, Nov. 23. Asked whether their injuries were life-threatening, Paulos said, "Right now, I'm not hearing that."

The driver and only occupant of the other car, also an adult male, waited at the scene and was taken to Regions for a blood draw. It was unknown Friday evening whether alcohol was involved in the crash, Paulos said.

Mary McCloy -- who lives in a house in front of the crash scene -- said her family was just sitting down to Thanksgiving leftovers when they heard the crash.

Although some neighbors noted that there are no traffic lights on the mile-long stretch of Minnehaha between Johnson Parkway and White Bear Avenue, McCloy said in the two years she has been in her house, she has never heard anyone racing down the street.

"The guy on the ground, we thought he was dead," she said of the scene. "Hearing the (other occupants) scream and cry, it was just heart-wrenching."
