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Woman crashes through furniture store
By ED QUIOCO, Times Staff Writer
PALM HARBOR -- Havertys Furniture manager Ed Fina was getting ready to open for business Monday when he heard the sound of breaking glass at the front of his store. "I heard the crash and thought somebody had dropped something," Fina said. "I ran out and the car was a quarter of the way into the store." The 2002 Honda CRV had crashed through two large glass panes and kept coming. It smashed several bedroom sets before coming to rest next to a bed and set of cabinets. The driver, Havertys saleswoman Kathleen Ellen McSunas, 58, of Palm Harbor told rescuers she blacked out after pulling into a parking spot at the south end of the store on 31594 U.S. 19 N, said Florida Highway Patrol community service officer Tom Marten. She said she did not remember hitting the gas pedal and sending the Honda over a parking curb, the sidewalk and through the store's glass front wall shortly before 9:30 a.m., Marten said. The vehicle went 55 feet from the parking spot before finally stopping. McSunas was taken by ambulance to Mease Countryside Hospital, where she was in fair condition Monday evening. There were no other reported injuries, according to Palm Harbor Fire Rescue. The accident caused about $34,000 in damage to the store and about $3,000 in damage to the Honda. Fortunately, no customers were inside the store and most of the employees were in the back of the store at the time of the accident. "If they were standing up there, they wouldn't have had a chance," Fina said. -- Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4185 or quioco@sptimes.com
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
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