No one was physically hurt, but several people were shaken up when a car crashed through the front window of a Castlegar business.
Amber Stoochnoff, manager of Dragonflies and Fairy Dust in the Columbia Plaza, said she wasn’t present when the incident happened Saturday just after they closed at 3 p.m.
But her mother was doing the cash out when “all of a sudden she heard a super loud crash. She looked up and there was a vehicle right at the edge of the window. All of the front window was smashed up. She was shocked.”
Stoochnoff said an older man accidentally stepped on the gas and drove into the window. But it could have been much worse.
“Surprisingly, none of our inventory was ruined. It was just the window, but it’s a big job. The frame is all wrecked. We’re probably looking at a few days to a couple weeks to get everything fixed.”
Stoochnoff said a restoration company took away all of the glass and boarded up the window frame so they were able to reopen the next morning.
Her mother had been at the back of the store, and was therefore uninjured, but “she was definitely shaken up. The other thing we’re grateful for is no one was walking on the sidewalk.”
Stoochnoff said the couple in the car also escaped without physical harm but were “definitely shocked and upset. They felt horrible and who wouldn’t? But we assured them it’s an accident and we weren’t angry. I gave them a big hug and made sure they were okay to drive.”
The vehicle did not appear to be damaged, she added.
