A dog walker believes she was just seconds away from being injured by a car which she witnessed crash into the side of a Londis.
Cristinela Grostsenko was out for a stroll with her five-year-old Yorkshire Terrier yesterday (June 3) when she saw the vehicle plough into the wall next to the convenience store.
Video footage of the aftermath shows the white electric car with its lights still flashing and dislodged bricks on the bonnet on the corner of Vicarage Road and Canterbury Road, Gillingham at around 7pm.
Cristinela told KentOnline: “My boyfriend had just texted me at the time to say he was on his way home and stopping at the petrol station on his way.
“I thought I would give Bella a walk and we always go right past the Londis.
“I waited at the corner for a bit almost exactly where the car crashed and then decided to cross where we always do.
“As my foot hit the kerb on the other side, boom I heard it and I saw the car had crashed.”
After the crash the owner of a nearby cleaning business went to check on the driver and found a man and a woman both in the car.
Cristinela added: “I asked ‘are you ok?’ and they didn’t really say much back.
“The man said they were fine and it was an electric vehicle and he had just tuned it to be an automatic.
“I didn’t know what that meant so I left them to it.”
The dog walker remained at the scene until she was joined by her boyfriend when police arrived around 30 minutes later.
Cristinela believes she was lucky to have avoided being hit.
“Sometimes when I take Bella out we just stand on that corner for a bit and watch and she does her thing,” she added.
“I decided as well to take her at that time because my boyfriend rang ahead to say he was stopping off at the petrol station.
“If he hadn’t I may have left that much later and it could be a different story.”
Cristinela believes the car lost control along Canterbury Street, veering into Vicarage Road before hitting the side of the building.
Opposite the crash is a raised drain cover that appears to have been dislodged and the side of the building that was impacted has now been boarded up.
A spokesperson for the police said: “Kent Police was called at 6.54pm on Monday 4 June to a report that a car had struck a building in Vicarage Road, Gillingham.
“Officers and paramedics attended the scene and the driver along with two passengers were taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
“Arrangements were made to recover the vehicle.”
The incident comes just days after another car crashed into the front of a house in Wigmore Road.
The front of the building has since been boarded up and the owners are waiting to receive instruction from insurers.
