A pensioner had a lucky escape when his car spun out of control and crashed into two East Kilbride businesses today.
Eye witnesses told Lanarkshire Live the 85-year-old man's Skoda jeep hit the shop front of the Village Launderette, smashing a window, as the driver attempted to reverse out of a parking bay.
Panicking, the OAP then reversed at high speed into a passing van which sent the car into a spin before ploughing through two metal barriers and landing in the garden of Spice restaurant at Kirkton Park.
Miraculously, the driver narrowly missed hitting a tree and thankfully walked away from the road accident unscathed, but badly shaken.
Spice owner Abby Saleem told us he was "grateful" no one was hurt as it happened before the lunchtime rush.
He said: "The elderly man had a very lucky escape. It doesn't bear thinking about if this had happened an hour later when there would have been high school kids standing right there having their lunch. It could have been a lot worse."
Village Launderette worker Ann McNab told us the driver is a regular customer who had just been in the shop.
She said: "He hit the corner window of the launderette first and shot back at great speed then a van came along and clipped him.
"The car spun round and round then flew through the two metal fences before resting at the big tree there.
"He walked out of it and didn't want to go to the hospital but I called an ambulance and his son came and took him.
"It's such a shame, he's a wee soul. No one was hurt that's the main thing."
Sergeant Scott Anderson said enquiries are ongoing into the incident.
"At around 11.20am today (January 31) at Kirkton Park, East Kilbride, an 85-year-old man lost control of his motor vehicle and collided with a barrier", said the Sgt.
"No persons were injured and minimal damaged was caused. Enquiries are ongoing at this time."
Restaurateur Abby, however, says the accident is yet another setback for his struggling business which has suffered a run of bad luck in the last few years.
In 2019, Abby spoke out after the restaurant was broken into three times that year, with the front window being badly damaged.
He also spoke of the "devastating” impact of the coronavirus pandemic on his livelihood.
His woes were compounded after the lock-up at the back of his eatery was broken into for the third time in a a few months last year.
Abby Saleem, who was forced to shield at home as he suffers from a heart condition, said like many others he is barely “hanging on,” saying that the constant changes to restrictions made matters worse.
And he says his restaurant was targeted by vandals yet again just two weeks before today's incident, leaving him further out of pocket.
He said: "I got broken into a couple of weeks ago. A guy smashed the toughened glass with a brick trying to get in.
"I think its local junkies as they've been in the restaurant trying to sell stolen goods before and then they come back and try to destroy you. Another problem is there's no CCTV cameras round here to catch them.
"Times are hard enough without waking up to this today. But material things can be replaced, the most important thing is that no one was hurt."
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