A BOMADERRY man has spoken of his lucky escape, having just left a Nowra gymnasium seconds before an out of control car crashed through its front doors.
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Member Jason Jones had just completed a session on the treadmill in the front of the Kinghorne Street Intensity Fitness building when the accident happened.
Mr Jones had just walked along the footpath on the eastern side of the street and was about to get onto his motorbike when the car careered across two lanes of traffic and smashed backwards into the front of the building.
Kinghorne Street was brought to a standstill around 1.20pm on Thursday after the accident.
Police said the female driver had just filled up with petrol at the nearby Shell service station, when she appeared to inadvertently place the vehicle in reverse rather than drive.
Bystanders said the car reversed out of the station, clipped another car, before careering across two lanes of traffic, mounting the curb and crashing through the front doors of the building.
Emergency crews raced to the scene, with the woman, believed to be in her 70s, thrown from the front seat into the rear seats of the vehicle due to the impact.
She was treated by paramedics and transported to Shoalhaven Hospital with multiple minor injuries.
Mr Jones said it was hard to comprehend just how lucky he was.
“It was all a bit surreal,” he said.
“Seconds earlier I was in the front of the building on a treadmill.
“It was lucky no one else was in the area at the time and incredible that anyone else wasn’t injured.”
Fire and Rescue NSW crews from Shoalhaven and Nowra attended the scene, with officers inspecting the building, which suffered significant structural damage, isolating the power.
Personnel were concerned an overhanging concrete awning in the doorway would collapse and the nearby glass front windows shatter as the car was removed.
Personnel from NSW Ambulance Rescue used acro props to secure the front of the building until a structural engineer could attend the scene and assess the damage, while Shoalhaven City Council erected a barricade around the crash scene.
Gym owner Nigel Brookes, who was in Berry at the time of the accident, said his phone “went off” receiving messages from people telling him something had happened at the gym.
“They said a car had gone through the front window,” he said.
“I was expecting it to be the window closer to the intersection with Worrigee Street, I never expected it to actually be the front doors.
“We’ve had a few close calls at the roundabout, with cars ending up on the footpath but I never expected anything like this.
“We have 24 hour access to the gym and I guess it was just lucky we close between 11.30am and 4.30pm each day and there weren’t a lot of people in there using the equipment.”
Mr Brookes was counting his blessings, saying he and his wife Samantha sit on a lounge directly behind the door where the car ended up each morning to have a coffee.
“Thankfully it didn’t happen earlier in the day,” he said.
“The main thing is the driver is going to be OK and no one else was injured.”
He said the gym would continue to operate from its downstairs location with access via Worrigee Street.