A driver was ticketed but didn’t suffer any injuries after driving her car into a store in Saskatoon on Tuesday.
Brooke Johnson was helping a customer at the back of SaskMade Marketplace on Eighth Street at around 11:30 a.m., when a Honda Civic suddenly smashed into the building.
We’ve had a bit of a oops today at the store 😣 so we’ll be closed for the remainder of the day.But the good news is we’ll be offering free delivery of online orders today!
Posted by SaskMade Marketplace on Tuesday, March 16, 2021
“Probably 20 minutes before, I was up there sitting down working on my display, and then a lady came in and wanted to look for flax. As that was happening, I heard this shatter noise — sure enough, something was going through our window,” Johnson said.
The next few minutes were a blur.
“I was literally in shock. I was running back and forth because someone was yelling ‘911,’ ” she said.
Police said a 71-year-old woman was trying to pull into a parking spot in front of the store when she accidentally accelerated into the store.
A tow truck was called to remove the car from SaskMade Marketplace and the driver was given a ticket for driving without due care and attention.
Fellow employee Emily Yan is amazed that no one was hurt.
“We still can’t imagine what happened. It looks like a movie scene,” she said. “I think everyone handled it very well.”
Yen figures more than $2,000 of inventory was damaged. She wasn’t able to provide an estimate on how much it would cost to replace the front of the store and its four windows.
Allan Schnell works at Dragon’s Den in the same strip mall as SaskMade Marketplace. In his 26 years of business, he has seen vehicles smash into businesses at least five times.
“In one case, I saw a gentlemen get out of his truck and he slipped (the truck) into reverse in the winter when he left the vehicle running,” he said. “It literally backed in, hit a couple of cars and ended up smashing into a building.”
Even the store next door has had two vehicles speed over the curb and collide with the front of the building.
“It’s basically people putting (their vehicle) into the wrong gear and (they) panic,” Schnell said. “It happens more than you think.”
Johnson said the driver was able to drive away from the scene later.
The store was able to open for business Wednesday.