Exclusive surveillance video shows the moments a car plowed into a coffee shop in Tarzana strip mall last week, injuring eight. Ted Chen reports for the NBC4 News at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024.
Surveillance video shows the moment a car plowed into a coffee shop in Tarzana on Thursday, resulting in only minor injuries, which the coffee shop owners called miraculous.
The crash took place around 4 p.m. Thursday, when there are often many people inside and outside Enigma Coffee at 18663 Ventura Boulevard. A car veered off the boulevard and plowed into the coffee shop.
The owners say it was remarkable that no one was in the path of the car.
“It was a miracle. It truly was,” said owner Katia Hayes.
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The Los Angeles Fire Department said eight people, including the 60-year-old driver, suffered minor injuries and no one was taken to the hospital. The injured people were said to be in cars or in the parking lot.
Only one barista was behind the counter and he was unhurt. But the building itself had considerable damage. In the video, debris can be seen falling from what the owners say is an elevator shaft.
“When I was rewatching the footage I was watching the whole day how we were all hanging in here,” said the shop’s other owner, Yoni Babitsky.
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The owners say they were in the shop with their 2-year-old child that afternoon, and that often the shop is filled with kids getting out of school.
“People came and asked later how come you’re so calm and I imagined what could have happened, and I’m grateful it happened the way it happened,” Hayes said.
It was unclear what caused the driver to veer off Ventura Boulevard into the parking lot and coffee shop. Police said no one was cited.
