A car "suddenly accelerated" into a medical building in Peabody, Mass., yesterday, plowing through the glass entryway and trapping an 85-year-old Derry woman in a bathroom.
"I was reading a magazine and suddenly there was an almighty explosion," said Jerry Catt of Derry, who was in the front lobby at time of the accident. "The car was stuck on full throttle. The engine was racing."
Catt was sitting in the lobby when the luxury sport sedan swept by him. He was uninjured, but his fiancee, Cyndi Plouff, was hurt when the metal frame around the large glass panes buckled from the crash and struck her arm, he said.
Catt's future mother-in-law, Madeline Roderick, formerly of Salem, Mass., was in the restroom at the back of the lobby. The Infiniti G25x crushed the bathroom wall and wedged the door stuck, he said. He had to kick in the door to help the 85-year-old Roderick out. Roderick lives with her daughter and Catt in Derry.
"The car went through the bathroom and into the unit behind it," Catt said. "The car was buried in on both sides."
Plouff and Roderick were taken by ambulance to Union Hospital in Lynn for treatment and released, Graham said.
The driver, Liduina Goulart, 68, and her husband Joseph Goulart, 77, of Peabody, were taken by ambulance to Salem Hospital. Joseph Goulart was treated and released, according to hospital spokeswoman Jean Graham. His wife was admitted and was in fair condition yesterday.
Susan Herlihy, 55, of Lynn had arrived for a follow-up appointment and had just checked in with the receptionist. She shut off her cell phone and put it in her purse.
"I heard the roar of the crash, and that was it," she said. "I didn't see it coming. I heard it after it came in."
Herlihy was pushed across the length of the waiting room as she sat in one of the chairs. Glass flew every which way, she said.
"The glass, I never saw so much glass in my life," Herlihy said. "That's all I could see was the glass. Thank God it was the safety glass."
She said she locked eyes with Plouff as the events unfolded around them.
"When it stopped, I stood up and I couldn't believe it," she said. "I just looked around. I thought, 'I cannot believe that I'm still standing here.'"
The Lynn resident said she felt fine but went to Lahey Clinic at the urging of medical staff. She has a few sore muscles and a few small cuts but is otherwise OK.
Peabody Police Department spokesman Capt. Dennis Bonaiuto said the car "suddenly accelerated right into the building." The car was towed to the police station where investigators were to check it for any mechanical problems.
Bonaiuto said the first emergency calls started coming in at 10:44 a.m.
Lab manager Judy Honohan said she was in another room, about 10 feet away from the crashing car. She came out just in time to see a chair come flying.
"It felt like an explosion," said Honohan, who called 911. "We all thought the roof came in."
Sally Papi, who works in the billing office, and Irene Gustat, who works in the phone room, heard a boom on the other side of the building but had no idea what happened.
"The whole building shook," Papi said.
"When you hear a bang you think it's going to stop," Gustat said. "It didn't stop."
Someone yelled for everyone to run, but in the chaos she thought she heard the word "gun." Others were screaming.
"It was panic because nobody in the back knew what was going on," Gustat said.
Bonaiuto said an accident reconstruction team will perform an investigation of the accident to try to determine what actually happened and will then decide if criminal charges are warranted, he said.
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