One person has died in hospital after a car crashed into a cafe on Auckland’s North Shore this morning.
The owner of the William Souter Espresso cafe in Forrest Hill said a woman and her high school-aged daughter were sitting outside when a car struck them.
Police were called at around 8.55am to the single-vehicle crash.
“A car has mounted the kerb and hit two people before impacting a building,” police said.
“One person was transported to hospital in a critical condition, and they have sadly now died from their injuries. Two people sustained moderate injuries. One was transported to hospital and the other was treated at the scene.”
A person who knew the family said the teenage girl had lost several teeth in the incident.
Cafe owner Paige Sun said she and her barista were inside the cafe and not hurt, but the mother and her daughter, who were regular customers, were struck while sitting on chairs outside with their small dog.
The owner said the daughter was wearing a Westlake Girls’ High School uniform and in “Year 12 or 13, I can’t remember”.
Westlake Girls’ High School declined to comment.
The crash “sounded like a boom”, Sun said.
“The glass is not broken, just the wall.”
The pair’s dog wasn’t hurt, Sun, who also knew the driver as a regular customer, said.
“They are all really nice.”
There was no one else inside or outside the cafe when the crash occurred, Sun said.
She expected the cafe would be closed for a couple of weeks, and while she had insurance, she wasn’t exactly sure what it covered.
Her landlord had insurance for the building, which had not been damaged by a vehicle in the three years she had owned the cafe, Sun said.
Another witness described dramatic scenes after the crash, with a woman lying on the ground and a “young girl” with injuries to her face, while a man living across the road woke to a “boom” before seeing a woman being taken out of the cafe on a “structure” by emergency services.
“We thought something fell down from up [above].”
Three ambulances, two rapid response units, and two operations managers were sent, St John said.
The crash was “an isolated incident and we don’t have any ongoing fears”, but people should stay away, police district shift commander Senior Sergeant Dean Roberts said.
“Nothing to indicate it’s suspicious. We’re still early in our investigation, but we’re progressing quickly.”
The Criminal Investigation Bureau was at the scene, as was the Serious Crash Unit.
William Souter St was closed between East Coast Rd and Morton Ave, police said.
The cafe is among a handful of shops on the small commercial strip, with parking directly in front.
Photos from the scene showed a hatchback crashed into the front glass window of the cafe.
About a dozen officers were at the scene, moving the public away from the crash site.
Apex Trophies & Engraving staff member Jess (no surname given) told Newstalk ZB she and colleagues rushed to help after hearing the “massive” crash at the neighbouring cafe.
“Pretty much the whole door has been destroyed with the window knocked out”.
A woman was lying on the ground, Jess said.
“She was who we were most worried about, because she looked so stunned. It looked like she may have been tossed by the car.”
A “young girl” had also been badly hurt on her face, but she was walking around, which Jess took as a good sign, she told Newstalk ZB.
Olivia, who did not give her surname, works at the K-medi Clinic nearby and told the Herald she heard a loud noise and dogs barking.
The crash was “shocking”, the cafe regular said.
The incident comes weeks after a car smashed into another Auckland cafe moments after its owner closed the doors.
The crash occurred on February 23 at Columbus Glen Innes, when a woman mistook her car accelerator for the brake and smashed through the store’s glass doors.
It wasn’t the first time the cafe had been struck by a car, co-owner Sudhakar Bacharam said.
In 2019, just six months after Bacharam took over the store, a customer crashed into the business after accidentally pushing the accelerator instead of the brake, Bacharam said.