The moment a car careered into a suburban Adelaide takeaway restaurant carpark has been caught on camera, with one witness saying she was only seconds away from being in its path.
Key points:
- The car crashed through a takeaway shop fence and then into cars
- Emergency services were called to the scene around 11:30pm
- Police said the driver appeared “grossly intoxicated”
Emergency services were called to the Barnacle Bill fish and chip shop on Anzac Highway at Plympton about 11:30pm on Tuesday to find the sedan had also crashed into several cars.
The driver, a 62-year-old woman, was taken to Flinders Medical Centre with minor injuries.
SA Police said she appeared “grossly intoxicated”, and said she had just left a nearby drive-through bottle shop when she allegedly hit the accelerator instead of the brake.
The car went through the fish and chip shop’s fence, “collided with the permanent outdoor dining furniture, through another fence and then hit two parked cars”, police said.
Local resident Penny-Jane Zadow, who lives in a nearby unit complex, said she witnessed the crash.
“It went straight into my next-door neighbour’s car and then into my car.”
Ms Zadow said she ran over to check on the driver, who had come dangerously close to gas pipes.
“It’s just very lucky — if she had been 10 centimetres to the right she would’ve collected the gas mains.”
Car ‘jumped’ through fence
Mika Sunuwar, who lives next door to Ms Zadow, said she heard a loud “bang” when the car slammed into her vehicle, which was parked out the front of her unit.
She said she had only bought her car less than a month ago.
“I feel really stressed, as an international student … it’s really hard to collect the money to buy a car.”
CCTV footage provided by Paraschos Tsantes and his wife Sofia Frangos-Tsantes, who have owned and operated the Barnacle Bill outlet for 34 years, shows the airborne car slamming through the fence.
Mr Tsantes said he was “very upset” and likened the mess left by the incident to an “explosion”, saying it was “very lucky” no-one was killed.
He arrived at the store around midnight, after a phone call from police, and said the car had hit the fence as it “jumped” through the air.
“We’ve never seen anything like this. This is unbelievable,” Ms Frangos-Tsantes said.
In a statement, SA Police said a blood sample would be taken from the driver to determine her blood-alcohol content, and that she is “likely to face driving charges”.
