Three people were hospitalized with serious injuries following an April 18 motor vehicle crash in Holmes Beach.
A woman driving a Jeep with Ohio plates crashed that day through the south-facing window of Gypsea Tides Beach Boutique, 5602 Marina Drive, and into the boutique before smashing the back wall, a shared wall with Reed Fitness & Physical Therapy.
The crash left the boutique’s owner, Rexann Cecil, and two patrons hospitalized with “serious injuries,” including head trauma and broken bones, according to Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer. He told the Islander April 20 that the three injured people had been released.
Tokajer said the motorist, Susan Reedy, born in 1955, and a snowbird with residences in Bradenton and Ohio, had been parking in a marked space on the south side of the building to go shopping when the vehicle “lunged forward.”
She told HBPD she recently had work done on her vehicle’s brakes.
Police towed the vehicle to a secure facility to further investigate the crash as operator error or mechanical fault, according to Tokajer.
Police also issued a citation to the motorist for careless driving.
The boutique’s broken window was boarded up by April 19, but the business had yet to reopen following the crash.
The crash also left the boutique’s shared wall with Reed Fitness in fragments.
An April 19 post on the boutique’s Facebook page read, in part, “I’m so thankful for everyone’s prayers and support, I have the best team, husband, family and friends who spent the whole day cleaning the store and taking care of me. I am recovering at home and I hope to have the store back open early to mid next week.”
Tokajer told The Islander in an April 20 phone call that it was one of the “most horrific” crash he has witnessed. He said he had observed evidence of the crash — a store surveillance video — that showed the Jeep accelerated as it went through the window.
Bonner Joy contributed to this report.