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SUV takes out front of off-island gas station
KRISTINA EDSON
The Gazette
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The driver of a sport utility vehicle crashed through the front of a Petro-Canada station in Vaudreuil-Dorion last Friday, shattering the plate-glass window and taking out part of a wall.
A store clerk and customer who were at the cashier's counter at the time of the incident suffered minor injuries. They both jumped out of the vehicle's path, police said.
The accident, which occurred around noon, forced the gas station at the corner of Harwood Blvd. and Daoust Rd. to shut down until Tuesday.
Katie Shaar, co-owner of the station, said she spoke with the female driver who temporarily turned the 4-year-old convenience store and gas station into a drive-through.
"She was very embarrassed," Shaar said. "I told her the important thing was that nobody was hurt."
According to the Sûreté du Québec, a 55-year-old St. Lazare woman lost control of her silver Mercedes-Benz SUV and plowed through the front of the building. Police said she might have fallen asleep at the wheel or blacked out.
Sgt. Jean-Charles Filion said the woman's foot pressed down on the car's accelerator instead of the break pedal as she drove across the gas station lot.
The driver was treated at the scene and taken to a hospital. She was later released.
No charges will be filed, police say.
A store clerk banged her knee when the car hit a counter, forcing it backward.
A pizzeria and a Subway sandwich shop, on either side of the gas station, where not damaged.
Shaar said the station's gas pumps were not damaged, but the electronic pump switches located under the cashier's counter were.
Electricians did some work on Tuesday, while a temporary door was put into place, allowing the business to reopen.
Shaar said she could not estimate the amount of damage caused to the building, nor how much the business lost in sales during the four days it was closed.