ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) – Nearly a dozen South Georgians are counting their blessings after a Friday night car crash didn’t turn deadly. A terrifying car crash just missed them as they were leaving a Mexican restaurant.
“I literally watched the car come for me. It was very shocking, very traumatic,” said Hailey Inghan, one of the customers.
She is seen in surveillance video of the incident falling just feet away from a car that came crashing into the El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant Friday night. the car came off of Highway 82 and spun out towards the direction Inghan and her friends had just gotten out of their car.
“By the time I looked back and decided which way I wanted to run; the car was already right there like right there about to hit the truck,” she said.
The 2024 red Mustang then hit the parked truck and a nearby tree.
Cindy Ford was taking pictures outside of El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant after her daughter’s birthday party when she saw the whole car wreck tear into the restaurant’s parking lot.
“You heard the engine rev and next thing you see is it’s coming, jumping the curve and then sliding and at one time it was airborne and you’re thinking I’m standing out front, there’s nothing between me and this car and if did not hit a bush and spun around, it would have went into the front of this restaurant,” she said. “It just shows you life can change in a moment. I mean if I had not have stopped my kids, my kids would have been standing right where that car come from.”
Luckily no one, including the driver, was seriously injured. The driver did receive two citations, one for failure to maintain lane, and another one for not having a license on him at the time of the accident.
Mathew Wright, a witness, said if the tree or truck would not have stopped the crashing car, customers would have been hit.
“Next time may be more tragic,” he said.
He said reckless driving is what led up to the wreck. he said he was driving down Fussell Road and saw the red Mustang speed through traffic and cut other drivers off. After trying to honk his horn at the driver to get him to slow down, that’s when Wright says he saw the driver lose control and spin out into the parking lot.
“Stop this road racing, testing these vehicles out and road racing. It ain’t worth it,” he said.
The owner of El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant, Supreeya Lopez, said she also witnessed the driver speeding before crashing into her parking lot.
“It’s just very devastating and shocking. We really need to do better,” she said.
She said issues like street racing in the area need to be addressed by law enforcement before situations like this one end up turning deadly.
“The city needs to gather; you know and start talking about this and do something about this and fix this problem because we need to make sure that we protect our citizens. We need to make sure that we protect the business,” she said.
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VIDEO: Albany car crash nearly hits customers in Friday night incident – WALB
