Hope Pharmasave staff got an unexpected visit Thursday morning, as a vehicle crashed through their exit doors on Wallace Street.
A single driver in a vehicle drove through the sliding doors of the entrance nearest the cash registers at around 9:30 a.m. Oct. 18, pushing concrete barriers and glass into the store. Front manager Kim Van Beest said the vehicle came about three feet into the store, thankfully no customers or staff were close to the entrance at the time and no one was injured as a result of the crash.
“I was up front with two other associates, we were behind the cash register, and all of a sudden we heard this huge smash. And then we look over our shoulders and there’s a cement barricade and the front of a vehicle in our store,” she said. “It happened really quickly.”
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Ambulance and police arrived on scene, and Van Beest said there were also passersby who came to see if they could assist.
The driver, a man in his 70s or 80s, was on his way to fill a prescription for his wife when the crash happened Van Beest said.
Staff Sgt. Karol Rehdner with the Hope RCMP confirmed via email that neither speed or alcohol were factors in the crash, it occurred as a result of ‘driver/operator error’.
While the staff on duty at the time are shaken up by the whole experience, Van Beest said the store is still open. It is ‘business as usual’, she said, and work is ongoing to repair the damaged entrance.
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