“We just can’t believe that she’s alive,” the 32-year-old’s mother told the Rotorua Daily Post after the crash, which happened at Urbano Bistro just before 6pm on Friday.
She landed against the wall opposite where she had been seated and was rushed to hospital with serious injuries including several broken bones.
Police said yesterday that the car’s driver had been involved in a collision with another car on Fenton St before crashing through the side wall of Urbano Bistro facing Grey St.
Five others suffered minor to moderate injuries – two from one car and three from the other.
Police have praised them for wearing seatbelts and potentially preventing more serious injuries.
Diner’s split-second decision
The mother of the seriously injured diner has spoken about the crash on the condition of anonymity, given her daughter was still recovering in Rotorua Hospital.
She said her daughter, who has three children aged under 12, suffered two broken pelvis bones, a fractured tailbone, fractured knee, fractured ankle, broken hand bone, bruised lungs, split spleen, two large cuts in her head requiring staples and several cuts and bruises.
“We were still pulling pieces of glass out of her back yesterday,” she said.
She told the Rotorua Daily Post her daughter had told her she heard a noise and looked out the window to see a car coming towards the restaurant.
In a split-second decision, she stood up from the table and turned to run.
The wall inside Urbano Bistro where the crashed car landed. Photo / Kelly Makiha
The car hit her back and she was thrown to the side of the restaurant a few metres away from where the car smashed into a pillar and wall inside the restaurant and came to a stop.
The mother believed that if her daughter had still been seated, she could have been run over or pinned.
Her back was black from bruising after taking the “full brunt” of the car, the mother said.
The car that crashed through Urbano Bistro.
The mother said they knew some of the emergency services staff working at the scene.
“My husband knows one … and he said, ‘I don’t understand how she survived’.
“He said she had someone watching over her that night.”
The couple had been at the restaurant after deciding to get a babysitter and have a night out together.
Urbano Bistro has been boarded up and will be closed until it is repaired. Photo / Megan Wilson
“He [her daughter’s husband] said one minute she was there and the next minute was gone.
“He thinks he was pushed by the table being moved and ended up being thrown towards the reception [cashier] area.”
The mother said her son-in-law reacted in an incredibly “calm” way and quickly went to his wife’s side to ensure she was not moved in case of spinal injuries, despite the “revving car” still being wedged into the pillar nearby.
She said her daughter would remain in hospital for some time recovering, including having surgery this week.
‘Carnage’ inside restaurant
Building owner Richard Sewell, who opened Urbano Bistro in 2007 and owned it until last year, told the Rotorua Daily Post yesterday the damage to the building was extensive and described the interior as “carnage”.
“We are standing here dumbfounded,” Sewell told the Rotorua Daily Post from inside the building.
Urbano Bistro building owner Richard Sewell inspects the damage, including showing tyre marks where the car went. Photo / Kelly Makiha
There were tyre marks on the carpet where the car entered the side of the building and hit a shared wall with neighbouring premises, Willow Fashion Boutique.
Despite the hole in the wall between the restaurant and the shop, the boutique was still open for business on Monday.
Sewell said most of the restaurant furniture was destroyed and there could be some serious structural damage to pillars.
“This is a major . . . We won’t know more until our insurance assessors come through.”
He estimated it could be a while before the bistro reopened.
The new owner, who did not want her name published, was working on Friday night and said it was a frightening experience.
“It was like an earthquake and then an explosion. I’m guessing the earthquake feeling was when it hit the window and the explosion was when it came through and hit the wall.”
She said she felt for the woman hurt because she was crying in pain.
A car crashed through the Urbano Bistro window in Rotorua on Friday. Photo / Andrew Warner
A police spokesman said on Monday that all those injured in vehicles had been discharged from Rotorua Hospital.
The spokesman said all occupants of the vehicles were wearing seatbelts and a child was in an approved and well-fitted car seat.
“Police emphasise the importance of being properly restrained, it is highly likely in this case serious injuries were prevented due to the occupants being properly restrained.”
He said police were continuing to investigate the cause of the crash and would review whether charges would be laid.
Police had said earlier that charges were unlikely as initial indications were that the driver had suffered a medical event.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
