Five people were taken to hospital, two of them in serious condition, after a car struck a massage clinic in the Canberra suburb of Weston on Friday, 9 October. Three people were pinned beneath the vehicle and had to be freed by emergency crews using airbags.
The crash occurred at about 11:45 am on Trenerry Street, close to the Cooleman Court shopping precinct, according to Region Canberra. ACT Ambulance Operations Manager Chris Tyrrell said the five patients were transported to Canberra Hospital. He described the outcome as relatively fortunate given the circumstances, noting that the injuries were confined to the lower limbs, though some of those injuries were serious.
Two of the injured were listed as serious but stable, two others had minor injuries, and the fifth was in a stable condition. A person who was inside the clinic when the car came through sustained minor injuries and was able to leave the building on foot.
Why it matters
The incident has drawn attention to the vulnerability of shopfronts along busy suburban retail strips, where vehicles and pedestrians share close quarters. It has also prompted reflection from local authorities about how quickly an ordinary afternoon can turn into a large-scale emergency response involving police, ambulance and fire crews.
Detective Sergeant Jonathan Turkich of ACT Policing said the driver was an 84-year-old woman. She returned a negative result on drug and alcohol testing and is cooperating with investigators. Turkich said there was nothing to indicate the crash was intentional, and he sought to reassure the public on that point.
He added that the event was a reminder for residents of the territory to look out for one another, and said the thoughts of those responding were with the injured and with the broader community affected by what happened.
Emergency crews free three people from beneath the car
ACT Fire and Rescue Commander Jeff Dau said the first responders arrived at what he described as a chaotic and confusing scene. Crews used airbags to lift the vehicle off the ground, which allowed them to extract the patients who were trapped underneath.
An earlier police statement, issued around 1 pm, said four people had been left trapped under the car. A spokesperson for the ACT Emergency Services Agency said the vehicle appeared to have lost control before hitting the shopfront, leaving those people stuck beneath it for a period of time. The number of people confirmed trapped was later revised to three, with five people in total taken to hospital.
Police at the scene were initially unable to provide details on the conditions of those taken to hospital. The clinic was cordoned off in the aftermath of the crash, with photographs from the scene showing the area sealed by emergency services.
The collision brought a heavy multi-agency response to the Weston shops, with police, ambulance and fire and rescue personnel all attending. The location, near Cooleman Court, is a well-used local shopping area, and the crash drew onlookers as word spread through the surrounding suburb.
What to watch
ACT Policing's investigation into the circumstances of the crash is continuing, with the driver assisting officers. Further details on the conditions of the hospitalised patients are expected to be released as they become available.
