Video: Family Narrowly Avoids Out-Of-Control Car In Napa Crash
NAPA (CBS SF) -- Police in Napa on Tuesday released frightening video that shows a woman and two young children barely escaping getting hit as a car loses control and plows through a restaurant's outdoor patio area Monday.
The clip that the department posted shows the near-miss that happened in front of a restaurant at around 5 p.m. Monday. The clip taken by the restaurant's surveillance camera showed the woman leaving Villa Corona at Bel Aire Plaza, holding a plastic bag in one hand and holding the door for two small children.
As the woman and children walk away from the door, a car suddenly comes into the video, smashing through the patio furniture in front of the location.
Vivian Saldivar was working the front counter at Villa Corona when the crash happened.
"It sounded like a big boom, just the way she was taking everything. It was like a bomb," said Saldivar. "When that happened, the first thing that came to my mind -- because I froze for I don't know how long, maybe a minute -- I thought about a lady and two kids that I just greeted out. Like, my heart just dropped."
While the woman and her kids seem to disappear in a tornado of flying debris in the video, they walked away shaken and a little scraped, but okay.
"They brought them in. The girl was very scared. She's two and a half. She was shaking. Little boy seemed fine. He wasn't crying or anything," said Saldivar.
According to Napa police officers, the driver wasn't drunk or impaired or having a medical emergency.
"The lady was either trying to park or she was in the parking lot and she lost control of the vehicle," said Napa Police Sgt. Heath Morrison.
Both restaurant staff and officers said the gloomy, rainy day is the only reason the incident was a close call and not a mass casualty.
"I'm just thankful that no one was sitting outside. I'm thankful for the weather, because these past couple of days it's been packed out here," said Saldivar.
A photo the Napa Police Department posted to its Instagram account noted that the driver lost control of their vehicle, driving through Villa Corona's outside dining area and striking a wall that separates the plaza from the neighboring residential area.
While the post said that no one was hurt, the Napa Valley Register reported that the 60-year-old female driver and one of the children who was approximately two or three years old were hospitalized with minor injuries.
The department's Facebook post noted that the incident was "a good reminder to always be aware of your surroundings."
