Car slams into Niagara Falls donut shop

(Updated)

A popular Niagara Falls donut shop was demolished Monday morning when a Lincoln crashed through the front wall and then out the other side. The couple inside the car were bruised and banged up — and the donut shop will be closed for weeks to repair the damage.

When the black Lincoln slammed into the front of Country Fresh Donuts on Victoria Avenue bricks were broken, windows smashed and furniture turned upside down. Mary Tu was inside at the dishwasher on the other side of the shop: “I heard boom. I saw all the lights. I was so scared it would blow up. Then I tried to get the girl but I couldn’t get her out.”

The passenger, a young woman from Niagara Falls was bleeding. Mary: “I said are you okay. You’ve got blood coming out of your head. She said I’m okay.”

Dave Gehl was with the couple in the car a short time before the crash. He ran to the donut shop when he heard the bang: “Crystal’s at home. She’s got a concussion. Nine staples in her head. When I seen him in the car. His legs were wrapped up behind his shoulders. He didn’t look good.”

Gehl says he’d been with the driver all day: “And I’d like to make it clear there was no alcohol all day. And for me, that’s big.”

But the driver has been charged with careless driving.

It’s unbelievable that no one was injured or killed. Mary Tu says just two minutes before the crash four people were sitting at a table near the window right in the path of
that car.

The crash was so loud, at two in the morning it jolted neighbours out of bed.

“What was my reaction to the bang. The whole house shook.”

As for the donut shop, it’s been here at corner of Victoria and Jepson for 23 years. They pulled the car out late Monday afternoon. The building’s severely damaged.
No word yet on when it will re-open. Anne Thong is co-owner of the donut shop: “We don’t know yet. We will re-open everything. Come back and visit it soon.”