OAP’S CAR PLOUGHS INTO BELFAST SHOP
ELDERLY DRIVER AND PASSENGER ESCAPE WITH MINOR INJURIES
AN elderly motorist and his passenger were treated for shock after their car slammed into a south Belfast shop and off-licence at the height of rush hour yesterday.
Eyewitnesses said that they had heard an “almighty bang” as the silver Honda Civic left the road and crashed through the window and into the aisles of Russell’s on the busy Lisburn Road.
Ambulance crews and PSNI vehicles arrived at the scene just after 5pm, with a rapid response paramedic unit and one A&E crew sent to the incident.
Two people were treated at the roadside after the accident, but neither party required hospital treatment, a spokesman for the Ambulance Service told the Belfast Telegraph.
Police cordoned off the area outside the off-licence because the street had been showered with shards of glass and other debris from the impact.
Thousands of pounds worth of damage are believed to have been caused to both to the shop and the car, which was later towed away on a trailer lorry for examination.
Sources at the scene said that the car was a hired automatic, and that the elderly driver may have been unfamiliar driving such a vehicle.
Rush-hour traffic was initially affected by the incident, but returned to a normal flow after around 60 minutes.
As the damage assessment be- gan and Russell’s staff began a clean-up operation in the wreckage of the devastated shop, a spokesman said the company did not wish to make any comment on the smash.
He did, however, confirm that none of the store’s employees had been injured.
An investigation into the cause of the accident is to be carried out in due course.