On Friday, September 11, at 10:32 a.m., a Toyota SUV crashed into the main entrance of Mama Maria’s Restaurant in Mercedes. According to the staff, there were no injuries, and the restaurant will still be open for business, asking customers to instead use the other entrance located on the side of the building.

Chrystal Garcia, one of the workers at the restaurant, recounted the incident.

“All I heard was a boom, and I noticed that the glass was on the floor, so I run over there to check what’s going on and I see the lady,” Garcia said. “I recognized her because she comes here often, so then I see her with her granddaughter, and she’s panicking, so I go and check if they’re ok, and then I called 9-1-1.”

Garcia then spoke with the driver of the SUV, who stated that the resulting crash was an accident, and was only trying to park in her usual spot.

“She comes out and started saying how she was gonna park, but her granddaughter said, ‘No don’t park there, that’s not a parking space,’ so she panicked, and instead of braking, she pressed the gas,” Garcia said.

When explaining the situation further, Garcia stated that the driver of the SUV was an elderly woman that restaurant staff had always helped whenever she came by.

“She just panicked, it was an accident…she’s an older lady, she can barely walk, we always help her to come in, I already know her.” she said. “I’m just glad that she’s doing ok.”

Garcia estimates that while she isn’t sure on an exact amount, the cost of repairs could possibly end up going over a thousand dollars, due to material and labor costs. 

“I wouldn’t know, but for sure more than $1K because it’s the material, plus to install it and all that… pretty sure it’s gonna be over a thousand dollars, I can’t exactly say, but that’s what I estimate.” she said.

Gilbert Quintero, a customer at the restaurant when the accident occurred, said that when he went outside to check what happened, he saw the older woman had her granddaughter in the passenger’s seat, who may have gotten a slight head injury.

“When I saw her she was leaning back and she was holding her head. And then her grandma was hugging her trying to calm her down, cause she was like, in shock or something.” Quintero said. “[Her grandma] wanted to get down but I told her ‘no, no, no, stay there,’ because I didn’t know if she was hurt or not.”

Quintero explained that if he had been sitting in his usual spot, he would have gotten blasted with the glass shards that had come flying to the far wall of the restaurant.

“I’m usually sitting on the far end, right on the corner, that’s where I usually sit, it’s a good thing we were sitting over here instead because the glass went–when [the door] got hit, boom, the glass went all the way to the wall.” he said.

After the authorities got the two out of the SUV, they declined to get in the ambulance and instead waited for another family member to pick them up. 

Though the morning started off with a panic, Mama Maria’s will continue business, and continue serving the Mercedes community.