Customers have lucky escape as car crashes into cafe
CUSTOMERS escaped death by inches after a car ploughed through the front of a busy cafe while they were having breakfast.
Ricky Garrett, 67, and his family had just moved to a warmer table when the red Kia Picanto smashed through the front window of the shop and into the seats where they’d just been sitting. Multiple tables were smashed, and son Aaron, 34, fractured his thumb while pulling his mum, Susan, 66, out of the path of the out-of-control car on Thursday.
Diners were pushed up against the walls by the force of the crash – but all seven customers and two staff members escaped without major injury.
A video shows the battered car pressed up against the counter – still with cakes on top – and cups of coffee on nearby tables at the cafe in Newbridge, near Caerphilly.
Ricky, a singer, said it was a miracle nobody was killed in the crash, which missed a mother with a pram by inches and an elderly man by seconds.
Grandfather Ricky, from Six Bells, said: “It was horrendous, to be honest. If we hadn’t moved table we would have been dead. My son, where he was sat, the car came through and destroyed all the tables.
“He had just paid for his meals and my wife went to order ours and she was standing in front of the counter. All of a sudden the car came through and destroyed everything.
“My son screamed. He grabbed my wife and pulled her out of the way. If he hadn’t she would have been dead or cut in half. I got pushed up against the wall. It was pandemonium. It felt like it happened in slow motion.”
The crash happened when retired Susan and Ricky met Aaron, also a singer, and his partner, Kayleigh Smith, 33, after the couple dropped off their son, 12, at school.
They were meeting for a late breakfast at Victoria’s Cafe and one half of the group had ordered at the counter, and the other half were in the process, at around 11.50am.
The family, who were joined by another friend, were sitting at the table in the path of the car, but had moved moments earlier to be closer to a radiator.
The vehicle smashed through the front window and Ricky injured his ribs when he was pushed up against the wall by the moving tables. Aaron fractured his thumb, and is in a cast, while pulling his mum, Susan, from the path of the car, and she hurt her shoulder. He said another woman was injured, and taken to hospital on a stretcher.
Ricky added: “To be honest with you, moments earlier an older gentleman was sat right in the window and left when he finished his breakfast. He wouldn’t be here now otherwise.
“If he hadn’t left, he would have been under that car.
“They have tables outside. Luckily people were sat in a place the car missed them. I think there was a lady with a pushchair or pram.
“Everybody had a lucky escape. Someone was watching over everybody.”
Gwent Police were called to the scene and firefighters pulled the car from the shop.
Ricky said they heard the accident happened when an elderly driver, using an automatic vehicle, put his foot on the wrong pedal.
A police spokesman said: “We received a call at 11.53am reporting a one-vehicle collision on Victoria Terrace in Newbridge. The vehicle, a Kia Picanto, collided with a cafe.
“Four people have sustained minor injuries and are being checked over by paramedics at the scene. The vehicle is in the process of being recovered and further inquiries are being undertaken.”
A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called to reports of an incident involving a vehicle on Victoria Terrace, Newbridge.
“We responded with three emergency ambulances, two-rapid response vehicles and were also supported by Wales Air Ambulance.
“One patient was transported to Royal Gwent Hospital.”