A car backed through a market stall and into a beauty salon at Gulfport’s Tuesday Morning Market. The salon remains open for business.
Maurice Loeb
A woman reversed her grey Kia Optima into Beauty Cafe Gulfport at 2820 Beach Blvd. S. on Tuesday, May 17 a few minutes before 11 a.m., during the city’s annual Gulfport Tuesday Fresh Market.
“She was backing into a parking spot and claims her foot or shoe got stuck causing her to reverse into the building,” Gulfport Public Information Officer Sergeant Thomas Woodman said.
Gulfport Police representatives say they had no reports of anyone injured at the scene. While reversing, Kia Optima driver Tina Losinger, 59, ran into a sustainable juice booth, hit a fence, and knocked down part of a railing and shattered the glass at the hair salon. The juice vendor, 25-year-old Gianna Fiola of Gaia Compassion told The Gabber the car missed her by very little.
“If I was a couple inches over I would have been dead,” Fiola said.
Gulfport police say the driver told police her foot got caught on the gas, forcing her backward.
Maurice Loeb
Salon owner Juanis Brasser says she watched the car back into her business.
“It was like a movie,” Brasser, standing a few feet from broken glass and rubble, said. “I started screaming, one of the women here, she pushed someone out of the way.”
Losinger is allegedly at fault, so her insurance company must pay for the damage to the Beauty Cafe and Fiola’s booth, but the costs are undetermined at this point. Shortly after the crash, a Gulfport building inspector checked the damage and confirmed it acceptable for the salon to stay open, as the building suffered no structural damages. The car did not enter the salon.
Beauty Cafe is still operating as usual, but the juice vendor is closed down for the rest of the Tuesday market.
Beauty Cafe owners are shaken up, but safe.
Maurice Loeb
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