KAILUA-KONA — No one was injured Friday afternoon when a vehicle jumped the curb, upended a bench situated on the walkway and smashed through the glass entrance of the GNC store at the Lanihau Center in Kailua Village.
The driver of the white, four-door Hyundai was Jill Manning, 76, a longtime resident of Kona. She was alone in the car at the time of the crash, which occurred a little after 2 p.m.
“I came into park but my brakes didn’t work,” she said. “I kept hitting the brake and hitting the brake, but it just kept going.”
After Manning sped over the curb and slammed into GNC’s double doors, one of which busted under the weight of the bench she hit while the other separated completely from its hinges, there was only one thought running through her mind.
“Oh my God, I hope I didn’t hit anybody,” she remembered.
While the center was bustling Friday afternoon, with most of the parking slots occupied, there were no pedestrians in her path at the time of the incident. Even more fortunate, there were no customers frequenting GNC, and only one of three employees on shift was actually in the store when the crash occurred.
Mason Arruda recalled the event from his position behind the cash register. Both he and Lanihau Center security officer Bobby Sakaguchi said Manning wasn’t pulling into the parking space in front of the store as she recounted, but rather that she was backing out.
“I heard her tires screeching, then she was kind of going a bit slow but then a little bit faster,” Arruda said. “I was right here and I jumped out of the way.”
Sakaguchi also gave his take on the situation as a bystander.
“She accelerated. She thought she had her foot on the brake but it was actually her foot on the gas,” he surmised. “It’s an accident. I mean, it happens. … Lucky I wasn’t inside because I’m usually standing right here.”
Arruda said by the time things had calmed down, pedestrians in the vicinity had already rushed to help Manning from the vehicle. She was able to walk away from the crash of her own accord.
He then reported the accident to police, who arrived about the same time as an ambulance.
An EMT checked Manning’s blood pressure and examined her right knee, which she said was only sore from a previous injury.
Police looked through the vehicle as Manning received attention and then contacted a tow truck. Authorities made no attempt to detain or arrest Manning at the scene.