8 hurt when man, 85, drives SUV into Fort Lauderdale dry cleaning store

April 17--FORT LAUDERDALE -- After an 85-year-old man behind the wheel of an SUV slammed through the glass storefront of a Fort Lauderdale dry cleaners on Friday morning, eight people were taken to the hospital, authorities said.

Seven of those injured were related to the crash that happened at a DryClean USA store, at 749 SE 17th St. The eighth person was a bystander who may have been overcome by heat.

At least one person affected by the crash was inside the store and had serious injuries, said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Tim Heiser.

It was shortly before 9 a.m. when a black Cadillac Escalade drove through the facade and completely inside the shop. The driver had to be removed from the wreck, Heiser said.

Fort Lauderdale police are investigating the crash and Detective Tracy Figone said the driver was among the patients taken to Broward Health Medical Center that is about five blocks west.

The driver's name was not released. No citations had yet been issued Friday morning, Figone said.

Juan Manuel Reyes, security guard for the shopping center, said as he arrived to work at 9 a.m., he saw people running toward the crash through the parking lot of the Causeway Shoppes.

"It's a family business, they are good guys, a nice family," Reyes said about the store owners.

Cheribin Charite was inside the dry cleaners when the Cadillac drove through.

"We felt something go boom, blow up," he said as he walked to an ambulance behind another person being carried on a stretcher. "We don't know what happened. I looked and there was a car inside. I don't know how [the driver] got in."

Charite said as he tried to run away from the crash, "I kept banging [into things] and hit myself."

Customer Elena Brie watched rescuers go into the store where she would not be able to retrieve her clean clothes.

"I'm worried for them," Brie said. "I hope everything is going to be OK for them."

She said she is a long-time patron of the store.

"They've always done a great job," Brie said. "It is a very nice family, always pleasant and very helpful."

Firefighter/paramedics were busy with backboards and gurneys taking patients to waiting ambulances.

When the SUV was towed out of the store that is just east of Federal Highway, customers' clean clothing, on hangars and in clear plastic bags, was stuck in the hood and undercarriage.

The crash caused a gas and water leak that was contained, Heiser said. Merchants were waiting outside their stores until a broken gas pipe was repaired.

One of those was Robert Sassano, manager of Barkers Pet Resort that is a few doors east of the dry cleaners.

"I heard a noise while I was outside, like a real big bang," Sassano said. "You could hear the glass."

When firefighters told him about the gas leak, he and employees evacuated their business and moved 50 cats and dogs into an outdoor walled courtyard to wait until they're allowed to go back indoors.

Raj Thiagarajan manages Harbordale Liquors, another shop that is a neighbor to the dry cleaners.

"I never saw an incident like this," Thiagarajan said about the SUV driving into the business. His store has large columns on either side of its glass front, but the structures may not protect him or his colleagues if another car doesn't stop outside.

"Yes there are columns, but still, it makes us nervous," he said.

Ltrischitta@Tribune.com, 954-356-4233 or Twitter @LindaTrischitta

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