A car went airborne and slammed into an Original Tommy’s on Beverly Boulevard during the dinner hour Friday evening while stunned patrons looked on.
The crash happened shortly before 6 p.m. at the burger stand near Beverly and South Rampart boulevards, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Nicholas Prange said. One person was taken to a hospital in unknown condition, he said. KTLA-TV identified the injured person as the vehicle’s driver.
Witnesses told KTLA the car was speeding down Beverly Boulevard at an estimated 100 mph and that it “literally exploded” upon impact. Video obtained by the news station showed the Infiniti launching into the air and flying into the side of the building.
“Everything exploded,” Luis Hernandez told KTLA. He said he and his brother had been at the restaurant eating before the Dodgers game.
“Me and my brother started running for our lives because his front left tire wheel came off and bounced on that roof and then it bounced right over the awning where I was standing under,” he said.
Several parked cars were also damaged in the crash, Prange said.
It’s not clear if the restaurant remained open. No one answered the phone Saturday morning.
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Alex Wigglesworth is an environment reporter who covers wildfires for the Los Angeles Times. Before joining the newsroom in 2016, she was a general assignment reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com. A Philadelphia native, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in medical anthropology and global health. She currently lives in Inglewood.
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