METRO VANCOUVER — A car rammed through the front doors of the BCAA outlet on the Langley Bypass, sending shards of glass flying early Tuesday afternoon.
Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt by the incident. The driver, apparently an elderly woman, was taken to Langley Memorial Hospital for observation.
“It just pulled in here to park,” said Brent Peterson, who was waiting in the parking lot for a business meeting.
He watched the car pull into a spot directly in front of the BCAA office’s double glass doors. It nudged the curb and came to a complete stop, he said.
Suddenly the car climbed the curb and went straight ahead, into the waiting area.
The car came to a halt entirely inside the store, almost touching the front counter.
“I don’t expect the guy’s going to get a good deal on his insurance,” said Peterson.
Cory Murray, a BCAA insurance advisor, said she was in the back and heard a loud crash, followed by some loud shrieking.
It was luck that no one was hurt, according to employees. The office had been busy all day, but at the precise moment of the crash, there was a lull and no one was sitting in the chairs that were showered with glass.
Sizeable shards were embedded in one of the chairs nearest to the doors.
Staff at the office went and helped the driver out of her car, Murray said.
Langley City firefighters arrived, along with a tow truck to help remove the vehicle.
After some experimentation, they found that the car – which appeared barely damaged – was still driveable. It had survived going through the front doors with both side mirrors still intact.
By wrenching what remained of the front doorway out of the way, the firefighters were able to simply back the car out of the office.
The exact cause of the collision with the building is not yet known.
