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‘It Just Took Off On Me,’ Says 82-Year-Old Driver Of SUV That Plowed Into Fair Lawn Restaurant

FOLLOW-UP: An 82-year-old Elmwood Park driver whose SUV plowed straight into a Fair Lawn restaurant, injuring a customer and an employee, said the vehicle “took off on her,” according to police.

The 82-year-old Elmwood Park driver of the SUV that plowed straight into the Green Dragon in Fair Lawn on Sunday, Feb. 5, said the vehicle “took off on her."

The 82-year-old Elmwood Park driver of the SUV that plowed straight into the Green Dragon in Fair Lawn on Sunday, Feb. 5, said the vehicle “took off on her."

Photo Credit: Boyd A. Loving

The motorist wasn’t injured when the Ford Escape jumped the curb, hit two bollards and “crashed through the front windows of the occupied dining room” at Green Dragon Asian Cuisine on Fair Lawn Avenue shortly before 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, Detective Eric Eleshewich said.

Two men were struck by flying debris – one of them a 41-year-old customer who was taken to the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, the other an employee, 35, who was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, both by the Fair Lawn Volunteer Ambulance Corps, the detective said on Tuesday.

Neither was seriously injured, he said.

The building, meanwhile, sustained severe damage to its façade and dining room and “minor structural damage that the restaurant owner was able to address,” Eleshewich said.

The Escape was backed out of the dining room on its own power after firefighters cleared the remaining glass and frames from the windows, he noted.

A flatbed tow truck removed the SUV for impounding while an investigation continues, the detectives said.

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