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Van crashes into Reflex store in Surrey, clerk narrowly escapes being hit

FLEETWOOD — No bystanders were hurt when a silver Chevrolet Astrovan crashed into a Reflex Supplements store Wednesday afternoon.

Police believe the driver had a medical incident while behind the wheel just before 2 p.m. at the intersection of 88th Avenue and Fraser Highway. He drove the van diagonally through the intersection, crossed over all lanes of Fraser Highway, jumped the curb through some bushes, then slammed into the building.

The man didn't apply brakes before hitting the store, according to police.

Jessica Holloway, a personal trainer who rents a gym behind the supplement store, was working with a client and her manager when she heard a loud bang.

“We heard this really, really loud bang and then an explosion of glass, so we ran as fast as we could to the front. Our first thought was the guy who was working the front desk had knocked over the shelves and it went through the front window,” she told the Now.

“As we went up to the front, we could see the front end of the truck… had pushed into the shelves and hit the front desk.”

Holloway said she then realized someone was still in the truck, with smoke and the smell of gasoline permeating the space, and went to see if the driver was OK.

She was the first person to make contact with the driver, who after instruction, squeezed Holloway’s hand to let her know he could hear her.

“The whole front end of his truck was almost completely wrapped around him,” she recalled.

It wasn’t long before emergency crews showed up, she said, but it took nearly 20 minutes to get the driver safely out of the van. She said there was rubble that looked like drywall and other work-related materials that had crashed forward from the back of the van.

The driver was taken to hospital, and is now in serious but stable condition.

“The whole store shook,” she said.

The young man working at the front desk had narrowly escaped getting hit.

“The front desk guy had luckily just left the front counter to go look out the front doors, which was just left of where the guy hit, to check and see if Tim Hortons was busy or not.”

Several witnesses who were at a nearby bus stop were also unharmed.

Police say it appears the driver had a medical incident resulting in the crash.

kalexandra@thenownewspaper.com

@kristialexandra