Speeding car crashes into parked vehicle, ends up inside store, Freeport mayor says

Driving as fast as 70 mph or so, a motorist on Friday night ran an intersection in Freeport, hit a curb, became airborne, crashed into a parked car and went on into a Subway store, where his car flipped, sparking an explosion and catching fire, Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy said.

And the driver, 37, survived, apparently with noncritical injuries, after the Freeport Fire Department, responding "very quickly," put out the flames and extricated him, the mayor said by telephone.

"He was so fortunate to survive it," Kennedy said.

The late-night crash began when the driver, whose identity was not released, was "cruising eastbound on Atlantic Avenue at an excessive high rate of speed, failed to stop at the intersection with South Main Street, proceeded through the parking lot, crashed into another car, crashed into the Subway store — and when it went into the store, the car caught fire, and he was trapped in the car," the mayor said.

The car the driver struck was unoccupied. It was parked partly in front of the Subway, and was pushed into it and a nearby 99-cent store.

"It was unbelievable, the damage that was sustained to the building, with the car lying, almost turned over in the store," the mayor said.

"Thank God, he's alive," he said, saluting the Fire Department for "responding so quickly and putting the flames out. "It took 20 minutes to half an hour to get him out of the car and right into an ambulance." The mayor added:

"He surely would have died had everyone not responded so quickly."