Staff reporters
A car crashed through an Alstonville florist shop window yesterday, pinning an 84-year-old woman under the vehicle.
Police say the woman, who was trapped under the car, was taken to Lismore Base Hospital, where she is in a critical condition.
The woman was knocked down by a maroon 1993-model Ford Falcon that mounted the footpath outside the florist at Alstonville Plaza, on Main Street, just after 11am.
She was dragged under the vehicle as it crashed through the shopfront.
Rescue crews worked frantically to free the elderly woman, who was trapped under the car for almost an hour.
A spokesperson for the Richmond Local Area Command told media, ‘The car collided with the woman, dragging her 10 metres through the front window of the shop’.
The driver of the car, a 62-year-old Alstonville man, was not hurt but was taken to hospital for mandatory drug and alcohol testing.
It is thought he may have accidentally put his car into the wrong gear.
The man has provided investigators a statement about the incident, while his vehicle has been seized for mechanical examination.
The incident has prompted Plaza shop-owners and staff to call for the erection of bollards around the car-parking area.
One staff member who works in the mall told local media there had been eight similar accidents in a four-year period.
