HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — In what could have been a disaster at a different time of year, a vehicle on Eighth Street drove into the front of Teerman’s of Holland Friday afternoon, Oct. 12, 2018. No one was injured, according to those on the scene.
Teerman’s employee Judy Gaglio said the driver, an older woman who had just been at the hair salon across the street.
“She … hit the gas and went right up over that flower bed, took out the stop sign, took out the bench that was there, and ended up into the building,” she said. “If this had of happened in July, it could have been a lot worse.”
Gaglio said no one was injured in the incident.
The damage includes four plate glass windows, metal framework, a metal bench, traffic sign and flower bed., as well as some brick pavers on the snowmelt sidewalk.
According to Holland Police Capt. Keith Mulder, the driver, Holland resident Barbara Klouw, 88, had parked her 2006 Hyundai Azera in a handicap space across the street by 23 E. Eighth St. While backing up, she had difficulty seeing traffic and was going slowly, she told police.
She told police she was unsure what happened next but ended up side-swiping a vehicle, running her car over the city’s curbed flowerbed, hitting a stop sign and park bench before crashing into Teerman’s. The shop’s stone facing prevented her car from crashing into the store, Capt. Mulder wrote in an email to WHTC, noting that no one was hurt, but Klouw was ticketed for the mishap.
