Driver crashes into restaurant in Elkview

UPDATE 6/8/23 @ 10 p.m.

ELKVIEW, W.Va. (WSAZ) - A car crashed into a fast food restaurant in Kanawha County toward the end of the lunch hour Thursday.

Just before 1 p.m., a guest entered the Taco Bell at the Crossings Mall in Elkview but didn’t use the front door.

General manager Nathan Sheets says at first, he thought the noise was an ice machine.

“When our ice machine runs out, it makes a loud noise, but it kept going and we realized it was something else,” Sheet said.

After rushing into the dining area, he saw a vehicle had crashed through a wall of the restaurant.

“I was worried somebody was sitting there,” Sheets said. “Luckily nobody was there.”

Sheets says fortunately no customers were in the lobby at the time, but one of the employees was taking her break in the corner across from where the car ended up.

He says customers had been sitting in the area where the car crashed moments earlier.

Justin Withrow, public information officer with the Pinch Volunteer Fire Department, says the elderly driver wasn’t physically harmed, but she did seem confused. Withrow says it seems likely this was a case of the driver hitting the gas when she meant to brake.

Sheets expects the lobby will remain closed a couple days as repairs are made, but the drive-thru remained open as of Thursday evening.

ORIGINAL STORY

ELKVIEW, W.Va. (WSAZ) – A restaurant at the Crossings Mall in Elkview was damaged Thursday after an incident.

According to the Pinch Volunteer Fire Department, firefighters responded to Taco Bell just before 1 p.m. and discovered a driver had crashed through the front of the building.

No injuries were reported in relation to the incident.

The general manager told our crew at the scene that damage estimates are around $10,000.

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