23 Injured After an SUV Drives Into a Denny’s
September 6th, 2023
Twenty-three people were injured on Labor Day when an SUV drove into a Denny’s restaurant in Rosenberg. Read the details of the incident and learn more about car-building crashes from your Austin car accident attorneys at Ramos James Law.
The Car-Building Collision
At around 11:22 a.m. on Monday, September 4, the Rosenberg Police Department received multiple 911 calls about an accident at the local Denny’s restaurant. Upon arriving at the scene, officers found that a Jeep SUV had been driven inside the building.
During the Labor Day lunchtime rush, the vehicle drove through the Denny’s south-facing exterior wall, destroying several booths inside the building. The Denny’s is located about 35 miles southwest of Houston on a Southwest Freeway frontage road in Rosenberg.
Victims reported hearing a loud bang before the car suddenly appeared inside the building, pushing debris in every direction. Photos of the scene show a black SUV driven fully inside the Denny’s.
A total of twenty-three people were injured in the crash, and all were taken to various hospitals in the area. The injuries ranged from minor cuts to severe damage, but none appeared to be life-threatening, according to authorities. None of the victims were rendered unconscious during the crash.
Initial reports stated that the victims’ ages ranged from 12 to 60 years old, but later reports stated that an 8-year-old, 77-year-old, and 79-year-old were hurt in the crash.
The 30-year-old driver of the SUV was unharmed in the crash. An investigation into the cause of the incident remains ongoing.
It’s unclear at this time what caused the SUV driver to collide with the restaurant, but Rosenberg Police say wet road conditions may have contributed. Victims told reporters that the driver did not appear to be intoxicated at the time of the crash, but details have not been confirmed.
Car-Building Collisions: How Common Are They?
Once you’re inside a building, you probably take it for granted that you’ll be safe from pedestrian-auto collisions, but the fact is that cars do crash into buildings every day in the U.S. In fact, the country sees an average of 100 vehicle-into-building collisions every single day. This includes collisions with restaurants and storefronts and collisions with apartments and homes.
According to the experts with the Storefront Safety Initiative, the top cause of car-building crashes is accidental acceleration: the driver thinks their foot is on the brake when it’s actually on the gas. Similar collisions can also occur when drivers think their car is in drive but it’s actually in reverse, or vice versa.
It’s also possible that the number of vehicle-into-building collisions may be underreported. That’s because if the vehicle involved collides with another vehicle before striking a building, that collision may not be recorded as a vehicle-building collision at all. This means that vehicle-building collisions may be an even greater problem than we think.
If you’ve been injured in an Austin car-building collision, the Austin car accident attorneys at Ramos James Law can help you find a path forward.
Source: CBS Austin, USA Today, ABC13