A group of customers at a Kaufman restaurant had a lunchtime meal they won't soon forget after a pickup truck slammed into the building.
Fire officials said the driver veered off the road, hit another car and then plowed into the El Mexicano Taqueria and Restaurant at the corner of Washington and Eighth streets, near Highway 175, just before noon.
"We had just began eating, and I was facing the window, and I knew a car had come through," said a customer who was inside the restaurant. "The crash was just incredible, and the building started to come down."
The truck crashed into the restaurant's kitchen, a part of the building that was reportedly added on. A collapsed roof and pile of debris could be seen at the restaurant Wednesday afternoon.
Coffman said four customers and a few employees were in the restaurant at the time of the crash.
"We just stood there waiting for the noise to stop," she said. "Then when the noise stopped, this young man ran from this side of the building where it collapsed (came) towards us. He was just bleeding profusely."
"It was before 12:00, so it wasn't their busy time," she said.
Three employees were hurt and sent to a Dallas hospital; one had a broken leg and another had a head injury. Fire officials said paramedics also transported the driver of the pickup truck to a hospital.
The restaurant's customers said luck was on their side. The four diners were seated on the opposite side of the building. Coffman said she was "just sitting in the right place."
Residents who frequent the restaurant said if the crash had occurred even 30 minutes later, many more customers would have been inside.
Fire officials said they do not know why the pickup truck driver lost control of his vehicle.
---Ashanti Blaize
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