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Car Jumps Curb, Smashes Into N. Miami Beach Store

NORTH MIAMI BEACH (CBS4)- Store owners at a South Florida boutique closed their store and will renovate after a driver crashed his car into their business in North Miami Beach Friday afternoon.

Clothes designer Martha Hernandez said she was at her computer when she saw the car coming straight for her.

"It sounded like an earthquake or a freight train, and I got up to see what was going on and that's when I see my walls and everything was coming at me," she said.

Hernandez said she was hit.

"It hit me hard, where the computer was set up," she said.

North Miami Beach Police said the man, who was driving a Lincoln car, thought he was pressing the brake but stepped on the gas as he slammed into the Playne Jane Boutique. The incident occurred at the 2100 block of NE 123 Street.

"(He) hit the accelerator instead of the brake and then just came in…crashed in," co-owner Don Weaver said.

Hernandez said she immediately left the store after the crash.

"I'm screaming at that point because I realized all too clearly what's was happening," she said. "And I'm just scooting back as far as I can until everything stopped. Basically, I was climbing out of here like a monkey.

Hernandez said she makes and designs all of the clothes and sells them to other shops and at her own store.

Weaver said they'll be out of commission awhile.

"It's going to take at least a week and we'll have to re-do the store, basically," he said.

The driver of the car was insured and the owners are filing a claim.

Hernandez was taken to the hospital after injuring her leg, but she is OK.

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