CAFE CRASH
THE owners of a Townsville cafe have told how they watched diners run for their lives as a stolen car crashed inches away from customers enjoying their morning coffees.
The car, allegedly driven by a 19year- old Kelso woman, crashed into a retaining wall outside Tide Cafe in Gregory St about 7am on Saturday before hitting with a tree.
The woman is accused of stealing the car from a Garbutt home before getting behind the wheel with a blood alcohol reading of 0.11, double the legal limit.
Tide owners Michael and Brooke Moffatt said if it were not for a small partition, many of the people sitting outside would have been killed.
“I was making coffee and I turned around and saw the car ... it made a hell of a bang,” Mr Moffatt said.
“We had customers sitting outside and if the wall wasn’t there they would be dead. They all ran and we didn’t know if the car had hit anyone or not so we ran out and made sure everyone was all right which they were. I’d imagine they were pretty shaken up.”
Mrs Moffatt said she saw the occupants of the car flee the scene.
“They got out and ran and one of our customers chased them down the road,” she said.
“I heard the biggest noise from out the back and one the girl said ‘ a car A WOMAN was cut from her vehicle after a three- car traffic crash on the Bruce Highway at Mutarnee on Saturday.
Police, ambulance and fire crews were called to the scene about 1pm amid reports of multiple injuries.
The 57- year- old woman who was the driver of one of the vehicles was the most seriously injured, sustaining chest and leg injuries. She was taken to has just hit the wall’ and we’re lucky no one was hurt.”
Mr Moffatt said the council had wisely insisted on the wall being there to protect diners from similar incidents and he would be organising for it to be repaired.
No one was injured in the incident. The alleged driver of the car, which was also carrying three passengers at the time of the crash, was arrested a short time later.
Police said the woman had never Townsville Hospital by the Queensland Government Air Rescue Helicopter in a stable condition.
Paramedics treated 11 patients in total and took eight to hospital with minor injuries.
The highway was closed for more than two hours as emergency services worked to clear the wreckage. It was reopened about 3pm. The cause of the crash is being investigated. held a driver’s licence. Witnesses caught up with the alleged driver and restrained her until police arrived.
She was charged with six offences including unlawful use of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, driving without a licence and driving over the middle alcohol limit.
The woman is accused of entering a Garbutt home and snatching the keys before taking off in the car.
She is scheduled to appear in Townsville Magistrates Court today.