Woman injured in freak crash at Inverloch
A WOMAN was taken to hospital after being hit by a car that mounted the footpath and crashed into a building in Inverloch last Tuesday.
The injured pedestrian, from Inverloch, was taken to hospital with injuries to her left arm and shoulder.
The elderly driver and his son, the only passenger, were not injured.
The man crashed his car into First National Real Estate’s display office building on A’Beckett Street.
The incident occurred at about 11am.
Owner of the Inverloch Esplanade Hotel, Dylan Clark, witnessed the accident from the top floor of the building, which sits directly opposite the crash site.
“There was a yell or a commotion. I turned and that’s when I saw the car on the nature-strip. It was going pretty quick,” he said.
“I got someone else’s attention, but by the time she turned to look he’d ploughed into the building. He hit one girl who tried to evade him. It looks like she got knocked to the ground pretty bad.
“The ambulance picked her up. She was in a fair bit of distress and seemed to be in shock. It was lucky there weren’t any kids or elderly people walking along there at the time.”
Mr Clark said it seemed the man’s foot was stuck on the accelerator, as he did not engage his brake at any time.
The strangest part of the incident was watching another vehicle slip into the parking spot immediately vacated by the man.
“A red car seemed to just follow him in,” Mr Clark said.
Police believe the man was parking his vehicle when he mistook the accelerator for the brake.
No one was in the real estate building at the time of the incident.
Tourists and locals were left shocked by the crash.
Police, SES and CFA volunteers remained on the scene as engineers assessed the structural integrity of the damaged building, which had a sizeable hole in the side of it.
The street was closed to traffic until after 2.30pm. Semi-permanent fencing was constructed to protect pedestrians on the busy strip.
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