An elderly woman lost control of her car, crashing into the popular Trader Joe’s on Long Beach Road in Oceanside on Friday.
The woman crashed right through the window of the store at about 1 p.m. after hitting two other cars in the parking lot, first – witnesses said.
Chaos erupted inside the busy store when the car rammed into the checkout lines, authorities said. The car pinned one shopper under its wheels and injured nine others.
The car took out three cash registers before it eventually came to a full stop.
Shoppers said it was so scary, things were crashing and glass was flying everywhere.
“There was somebody trapped, pinned up against the wall, half under the car,” said a worker in a neighboring business, who identified himself as Kevin. “I saw firefighters try to extricate the person.”
Car crashes into a Long Island Trader Joes, barreling over a dozen shoppers http://t.co/zoigbpUEjx pic.twitter.com/J9oSmUFPhv
— New York Post Metro (@nypmetro) December 6, 2013
“It was insane. The whole car was inside the store,” said Oceanside resident Michelle Olsen, 40, who saw the carnage as she drove into shopping plaza to get a pedicure.
Officials said 11 people including the driver were taken to nearby hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. One of the injured, a shopper, is at a local hospital and in critical condition. At least four of the injured were store employees, witnesses said.
An employee at a Liberty Travel office near the Trader Joe’s said: “We just saw all the police cars and ambulances rushing into the parking lot. We saw the car in the store. It broke through the windows.
“I saw a couple people being brought out on stretchers.”
There’s a big hole in the window,” said a worker across the street at Oceanside 24 Hour Bagel. “They just dragged the car out.”
Officials said there were no charges filed against the driver.
Image via Wikimedia Commons