OPERATIONS
EVERY DAY, A CAR SLAMS INTO A RESTAURANT SOMEWHERE. OPERATORS NEED TO TAKE ACTION. Around the country, vehicles crash into buildings an average of 100 times a day, and often it’s a restaurant. Experts say there are steps operators can take to prevent death, injury, damage and the liability that can result.
I t happens just after they take their first bite of a sandwich. Two YouTube influencers sitting in a Houston restaurant enjoying a Happy Hour spread are suddenly hit by a car that comes crashing through the window. Glass comes raining down as the couple struggles to move away. The influencers, Patrick Blackwood and Nina Santiago, suffered injuries and were hospitalized, but they are happy to be alive. The video, of course, went viral. It seems like a freak accident. But, sadly, vehicle-into-building crashes happen all the time, by one estimate an average of about 100 times a day, somewhere around the country. And about 20% of the time, it’s a restaurant that gets hit, if only because there are just so many of them near streets and parking lots. In July, a 2-year-old was killed and 13 others were injured in a Portillo’s in Oswego, Illinois, in July after a car crashed through the restaurant’s front doors facing the park- ing lot. On Aug. 15 and 16 alone, three pizzerias were hit in separate states. A car veered off the street and slams into a pizzeria in New Jersey. In Louisiana, SUV plowed into an- other pizzeria in Covington, injuring several people, including an infant. In Greece, New York, a sedan crashed into yet another piz- zeria, seriously injuring a 79-year-old inside. And it happened again at another pizze-
ria in Cleveland, Ohio, this week. (The driver was reportedly an off-duty police officer.) The Storefront Safety Council, an organ- ization that has tracked vehicle-to-building incidents for a decade, said almost 6,000 res- taurants have been hit by cars, as of May this year. Representing about 20% of such acci- dents overall, restaurants are the third most common type of business to be hit by a vehi- cle, after retail stores (23%) and other loca- tions not specified (28%). Rob Reiter, co-founder of the Storefront Safety Council, said every incident should be a wakeup call for restaurant operators to take steps to prevent these sort of crashes from happening. “The industry is on notice. It’s not like this is sneaking up on anybody,” he said. “These accidents happen where our families work, play, shop and eat lunch. And you only get one family.” There are a number of design steps res- taurant operators should consider to reduce the risk of a car ending up in their restaurant dining room. But key among them is the in- stallation of some kind of sturdy bollard or barriers that allow pedestrians but would stop a vehicle. And the most vulnerable spot in any res- taurant parking lot? The handicapped park- ing spaces. Those, of course, are placed closest to the door of a restaurant to allow for easy access.
LISA JENNINGS
LISA.JENNINGS@INFORMA.COM
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RESTAURANT BUSINESS OCTOBER 2025
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