Driver slams into Starbucks coffee shop

(7/30/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- Cleanup is underway at a Houston Starbucks after a driver ran right into the building. Despite the damage, things could have been much worse. The driver suffered minor injuries, while customers got a scare they won't soon forget.

Customers enjoying their Sunday coffee at the Starbucks on Westheimer and Fondren Sunday couldn't believe their eyes when the car came crashing into the store. Right now, it's not clear how the accident happened.

Customer Ali Suleiman was inside the Starbucks. Ironically, he was reading a newspaper article about a similar accident that happened yesterday out west.

"I was reading that another accident happened in California where a man hit a Starbucks," he said. "I was reading it and then I heard a loud explosion. It sounded like a bomb. It scared me. I looked behind me and half the car was inside the Starbucks."

Paramedics treated the driver at the scene and then took him to a local hospital to be checked out. Amazingly, no one was seriously injured.

"I think he was trying to push the brakes and instead pushed the gas," said Laghnimi. "It is probably just a mistake."

We have more details about that other crash out in southern California that we first told you Saturday night. An 85-year-old man crashed into the patio at a Starbucks in El Monte. The driver said he was trying to step on the brakes, but hit the gas instead. Two people were seriously hurt. Police aren't going to charge the driver.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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