Published: December 30, 2008 10:41 pm      

Car slams into convenience store

VARNELL — An elderly man was shaken but unhurt Tuesday after his Ford Tempo drove through the plate-glass front of a convenience store at the corner of Ga. Highway 2 and Cleveland Highway, causing extensive damage.

Wilbur Souther, 91, had pulled into the Kangaroo store around 1:10 p.m. to get an orange juice and a newspaper, said his daughter-in-law Annette Souther.

“He thought he was hitting the brake and hit the gas instead,” she said, adding that paramedics on the scene found him to be uninjured.

Souther, who was sitting in front of the store while firefighters and others cleaned up the glass inside the store and outside in the parking lot, was asked if he was scared during the incident.

“I didn’t have time to be scared,” he replied. “Before I knew it, it was over with.”

Store clerk Charles Adams couldn’t make the same claim.

“I was at the counter and it sounded like a bomb went off,” he reported. “Fortunately there weren’t any customers on that end of the store, but there were a couple on the other end. It scared all of us to begin with, then we ran over to check and make sure he was all right, then I called 911.

“The tires on the car were still spinning and filling the store up with smoke, so the (911) operator told me to get everyone out of the store. We helped him out of the car and then I looked under the car to make sure no one was under there. We helped him outside and sat him down in a chair. I think he had his brake on but his foot slipped off and hit the gas.”

Store manager Larry Crawley arrived to help clean up and said that although the store would be shut for a while, carpenters were on the way to board up the area where two pieces of plate glass had been shattered. He said the store would be “back up and running” soon and estimated the damage to be “at least $10,000.”

Dan Peeples, the incoming mayor of Varnell, said he had spoken to Souther and that he appeared to be unfazed by the excitement.

“The paramedics took his pulse and said it was at 66,” he said. “If it had been me, it would have been over 100.”

No charges were filed in the accident.