Accused Drunk Driver Crashes Car Into Rockland Pizza Restaurant

ROCKLAND (CBS) – A woman was drunk and speeding when she crashed her car into a pizza restaurant and it burst into flames in Rockland overnight, police said.

The Hyundai drove through the front of Mike's Pizza on Union Street just before midnight. When firefighters arrived, the car was on fire, so they evacuated the nine apartment units above as they searched the restaurant and put out the flames.

The woman who was driving the car, later identified as 40-year-old Lauren Hutcheon of Rockland, was taken to the hospital with what were described as "non-life-threatening injuries."

Police said she's now charged with OUI liquor, speeding, negligent operation, failure to stop and failing to drive in the right lane.

Around 3 a.m., the building commissioner allowed residents to go back into their apartments once the power was turned back on.

"It looks worse than it is. Luckily it went between the windows and all the damage is really isolated," owner Ron Lopes told WBZ-TV. The crash took out rows of tables and booths.

"I told my daughter, two hours earlier and there might have been people sitting at the booths and a whole different story," he said.

Five years ago, the same thing happened at Rockland Athletic Supplies across the street. It too was closed with just a few employees inside when a bar barreled through the front. "We dodged a bullet. We didn't lose any business, the ladies were fine, after hours, no employees were hurt, no one got hurt. We dodged a big bullet and it looks like he might have too," said owner John Medlin