MANSFIELD, Mass. — Store manager Ravi Patel says he was the only person inside the West Mansfield Variety store when a car came crashing through the business.
"“I’m eating my lunch over there and just somebody drives through," he said of the crash on Tuesday afternoon.
Patel was sitting in a chair, which broke, when it happened.
“It was like really loud, like a bomb blast, something like that," he said.
At 13:48 this afternoon MFD Engine 31, Rescue 35 and @MansfieldMAPD were dispatched to 428 Elm St, West Mansfield Variety, for reports of a car into the building. On arrival Engine 31 reported a car half way into the window of the variety store..... https://t.co/jW84eQ8eDG pic.twitter.com/xGtgVQKoxJ
— Mansfield Fire Department (@MansfieldFireMA) February 5, 2019
His arm was bruised, either from the car or debris. But he and the driver are OK.
“When I go outside, he’s shaking. I said, ‘Let’s go. Come in.’ I bring him inside the store,” Patel said of the driver.
“He just said, ‘You OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m OK.' I said, ‘You OK?’ He said, yeah, he’s OK, too. And then I said, ‘Come in. You sit down. If you need water, I give you water,'" Patel recalled.
Emergency crews responded to the scene shortly before 2 p.m. after receiving a report of a car into a building.
No serious injuries were reported. The cause of the incident was deemed accidental, according to the Mansfield Fire Department.
The store closed Tuesday but will reopen on Wednesday.
The store window has been boarded, and the building needs some siding repaired. Some liquor bottles were smashed when the car crashed into the store.
Cox Media Group
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