Diners eating their lunch in a Las Vegas restaurant had an unwelcomed surprise on Monday, when a car plowed through the restaurant's patio, injuring 10 people.
The car shattered a plate glass window with its hood before it came to a stop, its engine still running, authorities said.
Firefighters had to extricate four people stuck beneath the car, among them a boy, after the crash, which occurred at 12:30 p.m. at the Egg & I restaurant on Sahara Avenue, several blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip, according to witnesses.
The injured people were taken to two hospitals, and some were hurt seriously, said Las Vegas fire spokesman Tim Szymanski.
Suziliene McDonald, a restaurant patron, said she was sitting with her sisters when she saw the vehicle speeding towards the window.
"I screamed, 'A car's coming!' and it exploded through the window," McDonald said. "The motor was still revving and the dust came right after it, just like in the movies."
The car balanced on a patio chair over a woman who lay on her stomach, bleeding, with the car and a chair on top of her. The woman's son was in a crouching position beneath the car and near his mother, according to McDonald.
The two men inside the vehicle, a Lexus sedan, sat for a moment, likely shocked, and then tried to run, McDonald said. Several men jumped over a wrought-iron fence and caught them, holding them until police arrived.
"He kept saying he blacked out," McDonald said, referring to the driver, who sat on the sidewalk, shirtless and in handcuffs as police investigated the situation."But he was awake when he ran from the car."
McDonald, an executive with a nonprofit trauma and counseling agency in Las Vegas, said she began assessing injuries before paramedics arrived. Two girls appeared to have been cut by flying glass, she said. One woman with a broken leg was asking about her purse.
A restaurant employee who had been knocked into the kitchen by the force of the crash was among the injured.
Police said the driver will likely face felony reckless driving charges.
The Lexus was heading westbound when it hit at least two other vehicles before veering across a median towards the restaurant, according to police. Skid marks were visible across three travel lanes and two turn lanes.
The passenger sat on the curb and refused to speak with reporters. Police said he was not being charged with a crime.
The restaurant may have had 150 people inside and on the patio before the crash, said Sarah Gehringer, the manager.
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