A car has been filmed crashing into shops in Eastwood in Sydney’s northwest.
The incident at Eastwood in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Twitter/Nine NewsSource:Channel 9
The owner of a restaurant in Sydney’s northwest has described the “very lucky” moment no one was injured when a car being driven by an elderly man ploughed into the glass shopfront.
The SUV hit a garbage bin, reversed into the open shop and then lurched forward into a taxi.
Videos circulating on social media and footage obtained by Nine News show the incident on Rowe St in Eastwood at lunchtime on Tuesday.
The impacted business is the Eastwood Peking Seafood Restaurant next to the NAB branch along the busy shopping strip.
The car outside the restaurant and NAB in Eastwood. Picture: SCN Sydney Crimes News/FacebookSource:Supplied
Restaurant owner Tommy Chan told news.com.au they had customers dining for lunch when the car “suddenly” burst inside.
“Everything is broken,” he said, adding that he has insurance.
“All the glass is broken and the wall on the road.
“Then I hear it (the car) drive again, reverse again, three or four times.”
#BREAKING: A car has smashed into the front of shops on Rowe St, Eastwood. More to come. #9News pic.twitter.com/tvvZ3lA1xY
Mr Chan said the vehicle then crashed into a taxi outside which thankfully was parked without a driver inside.
He said it was “very lucky” all of the customers had been sitting at the back of the restaurant but they rushed even further away.
“Everybody was at the back, my customers were scared,” he said.
Two male firefighters can be heard in the footage screaming at passers-by to “get inside” and backing away from the wreckage.
“Put it away, get inside, call the police,” one of the men says.
He lifts a woman in a blue jacket away from the scene.
As the car moves forward, he yells “stop!”.
A woman is carried away by a firefighter. Picture: Twitter/Nine NewsSource:Channel 9
Fire & Rescue NSW Acting Superintendent Rob Jansen confirmed to news.com.au the two men who cleared the pedestrians out of the way are firefighters from the nearby Eastwood station.
“They were just going down to get some lunch,” he said.
Supt Jansen said the elderly driver had been “attempting to park the car”.
“He was having a bit of trouble so his wife got out and he’s reversed the car and – whether he’s confused the accelerator from the brake – he’s ended up mounting the kerb,” he said.
Some great driving skills caught on camera at Sydney’s Eastwood. pic.twitter.com/Bb5KVKocpb
Supt Jansen said the man “tried a couple of times to move it” and the vehicle was seen “sort of jerking backwards and forwards” before it “surged” into the shopfront.
“They (the firefighters) ushered some people into another shop and they were able to make sure the driver was okay,” he said.
“An ambulance was called and the elderly gentleman was just checked over to make sure that he was okay.”
A NSW Police spokeswoman told news.com.au they were called to the scene at 12.20pm on Tuesday.
“A man in his 80s was driving a Honda CR-V. He was parking it, we believe, when he’s reversed onto the kerb and into a shop,” she said.
She said no one was injured and the shop sustained minor damage.
The driver tested negative to a roadside breath test, the police spokeswoman said.