Neither the driver of the vehicle, nor those inside the business were injured when a car drove through a Nanaimo nail salon Thursday afternoon. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

driver error

‘Thought it was an explosion:’ parking car drives through front of Nanaimo nail salon

Jul 11, 2024 | 2:52 PM

NANAIMO — No one was injured but several people were left shaken after a vehicle drove through a local nail salon.

Emergency crews were called out to Bowen Centre at 1900 Bowen Rd. at 2 p.m. on Thursday, July 11, where a red Chevy Bolt drove through the front window of The Nail Lounge directly under Subway.

The driver and lone occupant of the vehicle was checked by paramedics on site but the incident was a narrow escape for staff and customers inside the salon, including a front desk receptionist who was in the back room at the time of the crash.

“If somebody was paying then people would have been in the hospital…this could have been very severe,” Miranda Marshall, a nail tech at The Nail Lounge, said. “We were helping our clients like we do every day, then the loudest explosion. I’m shaking, but I’m glad nobody was hurt.”

Marshall, along with her co-worker Sheena Maughan, said there were four customers in the salon at the time including one in a waiting area right next to where the car burst through.

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She added the vehicle came through at what felt like a high speed.

“We just saw the vehicle coming into the building, nobody saw it happening outside the building. They felt it over at the Hospice [Thrift Shoppe], they felt the building shake at the Hospice, they thought it was an explosion.”

Nanaimo Fire Rescue Cpt. Bryun Ashlie said the senior female driver was pulling into the parking spot when the incident occurred.

“It’s an electric vehicle, she thought it was de-energized, pulled her foot off the brake, and kind of accidentally hit on the gas and it went through the window.”

Ashlie said there was significant damage done to the front entrance of the store, smashing a number of glass window panes.

No structural damage was apparent immediately, according to Ashlie, but the true extent of the damage has yet to be determined.

He said these kind of incidents may draw attention, but they are not overly common.

“It’s not as often as what people think, but in my career, I’ve probably been to about five of them myself, where you think it’s in park and then they step on the gas and they go through the window. It does happen, and fortunately, most of the time there are no injuries.”

There was no estimation immediately available for how long The Nail Lounge would be closed.

A red hatchback accidently drove into a central Nanaimo business Thursday, as it was pulling into a parking space along Bowen Rd. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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