Elderly Man Drives Into HomeTown Buffet Restaurant In Elk Grove
ELK GROVE (CBS13) - An elderly driver crashed into the front entrance of an Elk Grove restaurant on Wednesday afternoon, injuring a customer.
The accident happened at about 1:30 p.m. at the HomeTown Buffet at 9089 Bruceville Road.
It was a nightmare in broad daylight as lunchtime crowd packed the restaurant.
"There was a loud wham," a witness said.
Little did many of the customers eating inside know, a car had come crashing through the front door. An 81-year-old man had driven through the front entrance.
"What's going through my mind? 'Oh boy. Why is this happening?'" he said.
In his path was a family leaving the restaurant who'd just celebrated a kindergarten graduation. The 6-year-old boy was physically uninjured, his mother was taken to the hospital as a precaution, but the boy's father was pinned between the Toyota Camry and the restaurant's entrance. His leg was badly injured.
"All of a sudden you realize you're in a life-changing situation, to see these people lying there that I hit," the driver said.
The driver claims the gas pedal got stuck, but this is kind of accident is something police unfortunately sometimes see with elderly drivers.
"During that process they become disoriented and think they're braking when they're accelerating," Elk Grove Police Officer Chris Trim said.
Some customers jumped into action, trying to deliver aid to the victim who was bleeding heavily.
"They'd already taken the guy's leg and tied it off so it stopped bleeding," a witness said.
Still the crash, as violent and traumatic as it may have been, didn't faze some who kept on eating even through dessert.
The driver hasn't been charged with anything as the investigation into the incident continues.
