Car smashes into Family Dollar store

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - It has happened again. A car smashed through a storefront, narrowly missing a customer walking by.

There are no charges against the driver at this time. This is the eigth reported incident of its kind in less than a month. See a photo gallery of the past incidents here. More people are calling for protective barriers where storefronts are most vulnerable.

The crash of the silver Jaguar into the Family Dollar store startled shoppers in the plaza at Kensington and Eggert. Christine Richardson heard the impact and snapped a picture on her cell phone.

Richardson said, "That's when you just heard a big boom, and we turned around and the whole front end was inside of Family Dollar."

No one was closer than Hayward Powell, who says he saw the driver first slow down to park.

"When I saw that she was slowing down, I continued to move. I took about two steps. The car jumped the curb and blew past me right about here, right about here. [Just missed me] by inches."

WEB EXTRAS:

>> click here for a photo gallery of the recent crashes

>> click here for a map of all the crash locations

Powell, who said he has a pacemaker and suffers from kidney failure, went into the neighboring restaurant where the driver and her passenger were eating after the accident. The 61 year old driver from Williamsville, whose name has not been released, did not want to be bothered.

Powell said, "I'm OK. They checked me out. They say that I'm fine, the ambulance people did."

Dakarai Jackson said, "We need to do something about these buildings not having barriers, because people going through these windows, there's been a lot of them lately, and people getting killed and stuff."

This is not the first scene of its kind in western New York recently. The popular Cheeburger Cheeburger restaurant on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Amherst was closed and boarded up Sunday morning, showing the aftermath of a terrible accident that killed a husband and wife, injured their son and a waitress.

On Tuesday, State Police say a 59-year-old man with a medical condition blacked out before driving into the patio at a bar and restaurant in Alden. On the same day, an elderly driver has been charged with DWI after crashing her car into a liquor store in Amherst.

September 13th, authorities had to shut down a Jamestown Burger King after an elderly woman accidentally crashed into the building on Foote Avenue. On the same day, a car smashed through front doors of Walgreens in Amherst.

While there is a move in Amherst to require barriers or bollards in front of vulnerable stores, not everyone is in favor of the idea.

Don Klinkman said, "To put bollards across the plaza and regulate business owners and plaza owners, the costs are enormous."

The proposal in Amherst would affect new construction. See a photo gallery documenting the eight crashes into buildings in western New York in the last three-and-a-half weeks here.

We'd like to hear what you have to say on the issue. Leave your comments below.