1 Dead, 6 Injured After Elderly Woman Accidentally Accelerates Car Into Miami Beach Outdoor Café
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – One person is dead and others are injured after a car slams into a Miami Beach Restaurant.
Police said the driver, a woman in her 70s, was trying to parallel park when she accidentally hit the gas causing her car to accelerate into people dining in the outdoor patio of Call Me Gaby restaurant.
Three people are in stable condition and three others were released from the hospital.
"You have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time for something like this to happen," says Violetta Kruszelnicki, a woman who was eating at the restaurant just 10 minutes prior to the crash.
"Horrible but oh so lucky that it didn't happen when I was here," she said.
Minutes after she left, she saw the scene unfolding, flashing lights and sirens as emergency responders rushed to the popular restaurant.
Police say the woman was trying to park when she hit the gas, sending her Bentley into a crowd of people dining.
"I feel really horrible for the person who died and the people in the hospital and I'm just really grateful it wasn't my children," says Jack Rubman who lives nearby.
Today Call Me Gaby released a statement reading in part, "We want to thank our employees, patrons and bystanders who leaped into action, helping lift the vehicle to save a three-year-old boy and a man in his 50s who were trapped underneath.
The freak accident, causing people to rethink one of their favorite features of the restaurant.
"That's the beauty of this whole place. That you can eat inside the garden," said Kruszelnicki.
Miami Beach Police say the investigation is still active but all signs point to this being a horrible accident.
"The driver who caused this accident remained on the scene and is cooperating with investigators. Right now, all indications lead us to believe this was a horrific accident," says a spokesperson, Ernesto Rodriguez.
