LAUDERHILL, FLA. (WSVN) - An out-of-control car came to a smashing stop at a gas station in Lauderhill, making for some frightening moments for Memorial Day customers.
Surveillance and cellphone video captured the fiery crash at the Chevron station on U.S. 441 and Northwest 16th Street, near Lauderhill Mall, Monday afternoon.
“There’s somebody in the car!” a man is heard screaming in the video.
Witnesses said the southbound-heading car swerved off U.S. 441, jumped the curb, knocked over a fuel pump and slammed into the building.
“The car came through those two trees and went straight in the store, and the fire started,” said a witness.
Store clerk Arif Rahman said he saw the vehicle hurtling toward the convenience store. “And when I see, I see something is coming, and it just hit, ‘bam,'” he said.
The crash took down a gas pump, igniting a fire.
Rahman, who found himself stuck behind the counter area, had to kick his jammed front door to get out and then grab a fire extinguisher.
“I just shut off the [pumps], everything, because you never know what can happen,” said Rahman.
The mother and daughter inside the car that spun out of control were able to get out on their own and run away from the fire.
Two other cars were struck before the car came to rest outside the convenience store.
A woman told 7News that Fritz Joseph, one of those vehicles’ owners, was pumping gas when he was startled by the crash.
“Then he saw the fire … so he just ran over here,” she said.
“We thought that it was going to be a big explosion,” said witness Ainsworth Daley.
“Everybody was shocked,” said a man.
According to Lauderhill Police, the mother, who was behind the wheel, had been turning onto U.S. 441 when she overcorrected while trying to avoid a collision with a tractor trailer.
Her daughter, Roxanne Desravines, was sitting in the back seat. She described what happened next.
“She kind of turned around. She was trying to press the brake, but it didn’t work,” she said, “so she just kind of did a crash.”
When asked if she felt frightened, Desravines nodded her head.
No one at the gas station was hurt.
Police have not yet issued a citation in this crash and continue to investigate.
The gas station opened for business, Tuesday.
Boards are now covering the area where the car smashed into, and the pump has been removed.
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