PHOTOS: SUV crashes into west Little Rock restaurant

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MITCHELL PE MASILUN --7/26/2017--
Firefighters clear debris after a vehicle drove through the wall of the Cracker Barrel in West Little Rock Wednesday, July 26, 2017.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MITCHELL PE MASILUN --7/26/2017-- Firefighters clear debris after a vehicle drove through the wall of the Cracker Barrel in West Little Rock Wednesday, July 26, 2017.

A 70-year-old woman who was meeting her sister for lunch "blacked out" and barreled through the side of the Cracker Barrel restaurant in west Little Rock about midday Wednesday, police say.

The Arkansas woman was driving a dark red Honda CRV in the parking lot of the restaurant at 2618 S. Shackleford Road, spokesman officer Steve Moore said.

As she pulled into a parking space around 11:45 a.m., she "blacked out" from a medical issue and drove through the northern wall of the building, he said.

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Photos by Emma Pettit

The SUV rammed the gift shop portion of the store, not the more-populated dining room, and no one was hurt, Moore said. The vehicle took down an exit door and panels of siding around it.

The driver, who was not identified, was taken to a hospital to be checked out, he said. She was the only person in the SUV at the time of the crash.

After the crash, onlookers snapped photos as employees maneuvered around the knocked-over shelves and scattered toys.

Tori George was less than four hours into her first-ever shift at the restaurant when she heard the "boom," she said. The wall started to creak, then crack.

"As soon as I heard the wall, I moved," she said.

George ushered two toddlers away from the corner of the gift shop as the CRV emerged between a stand of stuffed animals and a wall of scented candles.

George, who said she's been an emergency medical technician for a decade, ran to the driver, who was conscious, and told her to put the SUV in park. A doctor dining in the restaurant approached and took the woman's pulse. A few other people lifted the debris to get her out of the vehicle, George said.

Metro on 07/27/2017

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