BOSTON (WHDH) - Police are investigating after three people were struck by a vehicle that crashed into a restaurant in Boston on Friday afternoon.
Crews could be seen taping off the intersection of Tremont and Stuart streets, where the damaged vehicle could be seen against the Genki Ya Japanese restaurant.
A crash with another vehicle around 3:30 p.m. sent the vehicle off the road and into the restaurant, police said.
Two people were rushed to the hospital with what were considered non-life-threatening injuries, according to Boston police.
The Inspectional Services Department was notified and responded to the scene.
Cell phone video showed the immediate aftermath of the crash, with people rushing to help.
One witness said he was shocked by the scene.
“You’re just trying to sit here, trying to understand that there is a full crashed car directly on the corner here,” said Dylan Stevens. “You don’t see that every day of the week.”
Stevens said he and a group of people crossed Stuart Street within minutes of the crash.
“We’re very thankful that we were not part of it but [we’re] praying for anyone else that was potentially injured in it,” Stevens said.
Andrew Denney said he was walking through the intersection of Stuart and Tremont Street when he heard a sedan and an SUV crash into each other. The SUV then crashed into Genki Ya.
“It’s jarring and immediately it kind of sets off a panic,” Denney said.
“It was pandemonium, just a lot of people all around it,” Stevens said, describing the immediate aftermath of the crash.
Alex Simpson was one of the people who rushed to help.
Simpson was on the sidewalk just feet from the restaurant when the SUV came to a stop.
“It was the noise of the crash that made me look up to see that he was now just full speed coming in straight toward the building,” Simpson said.
Simpson said he and another man used a pocket knife to help the driver in the SUV.
“We got in there and got the airbag cut and started checking him to see if he was doing alright and he was not doing well at all,” he said.
The family who runs Genki Ya said no one inside their business was hurt. Though the damage to their building can be fixed, they said they do not know how long that process will take.
“It hurts because this is the family business over here,” said restaurant employee Nick Chung. “We have all family almost working here. We all try to help each other and just to have this happen almost out of nowhere, it’s a shock.”
“What do you do?” Chung said.
The car had been removed from the scene as of around 6:30 p.m. But debris still littered the sidewalk outside Genki Ya. Part of the area was still blocked with police tape.
By 9 p.m., workers had cleared much of the debris and begun repairing the damaged restaurant’s foundation.
The cause of the crash remained under investigation.
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