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Car hits bank awning, killing customer

By TOM ZUCCO
Published February 23, 2005

ST. PETE BEACH - An elderly Illinois woman drove her Lincoln Town Car through a Wachovia Bank parking lot Tuesday and crashed into a concrete overhang, killing a bank customer who had just emerged from the building.

The customer, Katherine E. Weber, 51, of St. Petersburg, was taken to Bayfront Medical Center where she died a few hours later.

St. Pete Beach police say Marjory B. Thompson, 88, was driving a silver late-model Lincoln shortly before 2 p.m. when the car accelerated, jumped a curb and slammed into a support holding an overhang that protected the east entrance to the bank. The impact caused the overhang to collapse onto the walkway.

Weber, who records show was a registered nurse, was trapped in the rubble for several minutes before rescue workers freed her.

Part of the overhang also demolished the front end of Thompson's car, including the windshield, but missed the driver by inches. Thompson, police said, was not injured.

No one in the bank, at Blind Pass Road and Corey Avenue, was injured. It remained open as workers hauled the car away.

St. Pete Beach police Chief David Romine said Thompson is a seasonal resident of St. Pete Beach and lives part of the year in Downers Grove, Ill. Romine also said preliminary indications show alcohol was not involved. No charges were filed Tuesday, Romine said, but an investigation is continuing.

[Last modified February 23, 2005, 00:58:17]