Five injured as car crashes into Tunapuna clothing store

FIVE people are lucky to be alive after a car ploughed into them on Friday morning, dragging two several feet before stopping in the middle of a clothing store.

Police reported that at around 11.06 am, a 63-year-old driver of a black Toyota Yaris climbed the sidewalk while attempting to turn around on the Eastern Main Road, Tunapuna, when she knocked down five people.

The incident took place at Farah’s Fashion. Police said the elderly woman mashed the gas pedal instead of brakes and hit a 79-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl, dragging the woman from the sidewalk to the inside of the store and throwing the child into the store.

The driver also struck a store employee and two customers.

When Newsday visited the scene the store was closed. A store owner next door, who did not want to be named, said raising the sidewalk might prevent such things from reoccurring and might mitigate against flooding in the area as well.

Reliving what took place, the man said he too was happy to be alive as he usually stands with his back to the main road and would normally stand outside the store chatting with workers and the owner.

“The woman was making a U-turn, and when she reach near, you just see the car driving fast. She hit an old lady, a young girl and, as she reach in the store, she hit a worker and two customers. She end up in the middle of the store.”

“The old lady was under the car, one woman was pinned up against the wall, the two customers get carried down (dragged) too and the girl from the pavement end up in front the car in the middle of the store.”

The store owner said the driver was very remorseful, crying even, after the accident. Thankfully, police officers who were on patrol were nearby and brought order to the chaos within seconds.

Contacted for comment, officials of the Tunupuna Regional Corporation said raising the sidewalk was under the purview of the Ministry of Works and Transport.

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said, if a request was made, the engineering department would have to determine the feasibility of change, as they would not want to solve one problem by creating another.

Sinanan said, while you can’t engineer for every incident, once the engineers submit that raising the sidewalk can and should be done, it would, adding that road improvements were done on a continuous basis.