Horror at dinnertime: Car plows into restaurant

PORT ANGELES — A woman backed a car through a wall of the Fairmount Italian Restaurant, injuring three people who were seated at a booth inside.

The driver, Maria Sands, 77, was not injured when the Lincoln Town Car plunged half its length through the brick, wood and glass wall of the restaurant, said Cpl. Kevin Miller of the Port Angeles Police Department.

Elisabeth Nicole Hagerman, 19, remained in Olympic Medical Center on Saturday with a broken arm and internal bleeding, said her mother, Huberta Meadows, 42, who was treated and discharged from OMC on Friday.

Juana Argyropoulos, 50, also was treated and discharged, said the OMC nursing supervisor.

Sands’ passenger, Gordon Cole, was not injured, Miller said.

Sands has not been cited.

“It is still being investigated and being totaled up,” Miller said.

Miller gave this account:

Sands left the restaurant, backed away from the west side of the restaurant in the Lincoln Town Car and swung around in a circle.

The car circled around the west wing of the restaurant before hitting the east wing.

“The driver said she had no idea why she was not able to stop the car,” he said.

“From where she was parked to where she hit the restaurant, it was over 200 feet and there is no evidence, and witnesses say, that the brakes were never activated.”

The east wing of the restaurant was closed on Saturday and the hole in the wall was boarded up.

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