Several injured after SUV crashes into AAA office in Northwest Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Crews are working to repair an insurance office in Northwest Fresno after an SUV crashed through the front entrance and injured several people.

The vehicle came through the AAA office around 12:30 p.m. Monday. It's located on Forkner Avneue, which is near Shaw and West.

Firefighters say the structure itself has been deemed safe, and crews plan to spend the day Tuesday making repairs to a support beam that helped stop the moving vehicle.

It's one of the busiest AAA offices in the Valley. But on Monday it was closed and employees were sent home for the day after a 66-year-old woman drove her Lexus SUV right through the entrance of the insurance office.

"She was here to pick up her registration tags, so she is a customer as well," said Fresno Police Sgt. Gary Beer.

Fresno police say the unidentified woman had a broken leg from a previous incident. She was parked in a handicapped stall in front of the building, when they say she put her car in drive rather than reverse and accelerated with such force that she tore out a cement garbage can chained to the ground and pushed it about 30 feet into the interior of the building.

"She could feel her car bumping up against something, so she continued to press the accelerator, in which time it jumped over the parking block and it appears she may have panicked, and drove through the front plate glass window and doors," said Sgt. Beer.

Seven people, including five customers and two employees, were injured as desks, tables and chairs were struck by the moving vehicle. Some of them were carried out on stretchers, including one woman who suffered a broken leg.

"Myself and some other people removed the desk off the woman that was sitting in the reception area; luckily she's alive, she just hurt her leg real bad and I contacted 911," said Frank Laugher, a customer.

Laugher says he was saying goodbye to his insurance agent when he heard a loud bang. That's when he says he looked up and saw the Lexus heading right for him.

"The vehicle was stopped about 20 feet from where I was standing," said Laugher. "We thought, the insurance agent and myself, it was going to come through right to us, but luckily the support beam in the office stopped it."

Officers say if it weren't for that support beam more people could've been hurt. That's because the car was travelling toward some cubicles where employees were working in the back of the room.

"To travel that far she was obviously on the gas pretty much the whole way through until she hit the pole," said Sgt. Beer. "And that appears to be the issue with these types of collisions, once they hit something they panic, and instead of transferring over to the brake they just keep on the gas."

The driver also suffered cuts from the shattered glass but is expected to be OK.

The building is expected to remain closed for several days, and customers are being referred to the AAA office in Clovis.

In the meantime, police are reviewing surveillance video captured both inside and outside the business to determine exactly what happened.