A car smashed through the front of the Basil Bandwagon store in Raritan Township Saturday afternoon, coming to rest completely inside the building. The driver, his passenger and the dog in the car all escaped injury.
The mishap took place just before 2 p.m. at the natural market and organic food store, 276 Route 202-31 in the Flemington Circle Shopping Center. The driver, a man whose name was not immediately available, was heard telling a policeman that his car, a Jeep sport-utility vehicle, suddenly lurched into the store.
Frank Veneziale, emergency management coordinator, said that in addition to the two people in the Jeep, somebody who was in the store complained of chest pain. All three were examined by the Flemington-Raritan Rescue Squad. Also responding were Raritan Township Fire Company and paramedics from Hunterdon Medical Center.
A township Construction Department official looked over the damaged building and declared it to be structurally safe, Veneziale said. But, the emergency personnel had the electricity turned off and the store will be closed until the windows and doors can be replaced.
The car, which was pulled out and hauled away by a flatbed wrecker from Superior Towing, did not appear to have extensive damage.
