A 90-year-old driver may have been drunk when he slammed his car into a California coffee shop on Thanksgiving night, police said — with the shocking crash captured on surveillance video.
The clip shows the car racing down University Avenue in the San Jose suburb of Los Gatos around 9 p.m. on Thursday, then ramming at full speed into Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company, demolishing the popular local shop and sending the unnamed driver to the hospital, WABC-TV News reported.
“Just devastated with the destruction, but incredibly grateful that no one was injured inside aside from the driver of the vehicle,” coffee shop owner Teri Hope told the outlet.
The Thanksgiving crash at Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company trashed the shop and sent the driver to the hospital. Facebook/Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department
“Fixtures and furniture in half the building have been demolished,” Hope said. “That is the heart of our business.”
Photos from the scene in the aftermath of the crash show the dark-colored sedan resting on top of the debris from the shattered shop after flying through the front plate-glass window.
“It is suspected alcohol may have played a role in this incident but all factors are being looked at as part of the ongoing investigation,” Los Gatos police said in a statement. “The business was closed and unoccupied at the time of this incident and the driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle.”
Cops, who did not identify the driver, said he was listed in stable condition at a local hospital.
Locals who frequent the popular coffee shop told ABC they were shaken to think how things may have unfolded if the crash happened at another time of day.
Shocking surveillance footage shows the speeding car slam into the California coffee shop on Thanksgiving night. KRON4
“So many times we’ve sat in that room that’s been devastated,” regular Sheila Lebedenko told the outlet. “And it’s just to think that you could be sitting there drinking coffee, eating pastry, watching musicians and that could just suddenly happen.”
Despite the devastation, Hope said she will try to reopen at some point.
“I believe we are going to be back on our feet shortly,” she said.