A local jewelry store was virtually destroyed Thursday afternoon when a vehicle slammed into it, but miraculously no one was seriously injured.
An older model Ford Taurus smashed through the windows of the Watch & Jewelry Factory Outlet in the Mission Hill Plaza beside O’Mailles Irish Pub, around 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Two of the four front windows and the door were completely destroyed along with a row of display cases before the car finally came to rest in the back room of the jewelry store.
Owner John Wyatt had just stepped out of the building when the vehicle came crashing in.
“I was standing at the back having a cigarette. Don’t let anyone tell you smoking is bad for you,” said Wyatt.
When he first heard the sound he had no idea what had happened.
“It was a huge bang,” Wyatt said.
When he ran back into the store he was in complete shock at the damage to his business.
Rob Johma, whose barbershop is a few doors down, thought there was an explosion because of the tremendous noise and the rattling of his shop’s walls.
“It sounded like a bomb.”
Johma said he was amazed at how far into the store the vehicle had travelled.
“I never thought a car could go through like that.”
Another woman who was shopping in the plaza said the car went straight into the store, leaving behind a massive cloud of glass and dust.
“It just barrelled right in there,” said the woman, who declined to provide her name.
The driver of the vehicle, an 85-year-old woman, was taken to hospital but no one else was injured in the incident. The RCMP said Friday the driver was relatively unhurt, though obviously shaken up.
Glass littered the entire store on Thursday as firefighters helped Wyatt pick up some of his merchandise before the car could be towed out of his store.
The display cases had been reduced to timbers and the wall separating the store from the back room was completely gone.
The collision was powerful enough to cause structural concerns about O’Mailles next door, temporarily delaying opening a few hours.
Wyatt said any customers who had dropped off items for repair would be contacted as soon as possible.
RCMP officers were on scene Thursday night. On Friday the car was sent for a mechanical inspection as part of the ongoing investigation.
