The driver, Tina Losinger, claims her foot was caught on the gas, forcing her backward. Juice vendor, 24-year-old Gianna Fiola says not only was she injured in the crash, her tent and merchandise were destroyed.
Maurice Loeb
Despite Gulfport Police telling The Gabber that no one was injured after a woman backed her car through a Tuesday Fresh Market tent and into a Beach Boulevard salon, vendor Gianna Fiola says she hurt her wrist in the altercation.
Tina Losinger, 59, backed her Kia Optima into a diagonal parking space and ran into 24-year-old Fiola’s juice stand, Gaia Compassion, and then the front of Beauty Cafe Gulfport on Beach Boulevard South.
“I’m not sure what hit my wrist,” Fiola told The Gabber following the event. “I think it may have been her side view mirror. It was all so quick and loud and crazy I don’t even know. It was like a tornado came and took out everything except me sitting on my cooler.”
Juanis Brasser, owner of Beauty Cafe says her staff and customers were safe despite the Kia Optima striking a railing, hitting a window, and shattering glass.
Losinger reportedly told Gulfport Police her shoe or foot was caught on the gas. Her insurance will pay for the damages to Brasser’s Gulfport salon.
“I think it should be emphasized that they almost killed a vendor, destroyed my entire setup and missed me by only six inches and I am injured, which will put me out of work until my wrist is healed,” Fiola said. According to Fiola, she will not be able to return to making juice for at least two weeks due to her injuries.
Missy Helmbold, who runs Gulfport Merchants Chamber market events [Tuesday Fresh, First Friday, Indiefaire] says the GMC does pay for insurance through R.W. Caldwell Realty & Insurance. Vendors are required to have liability insurance for their products, which Fiola says she has. If the accident was at the fault of the chamber, then they would pay for the damages.
In this case, the vendor and the driver will go through their own insurance policies.
The juice vendor added she believes the City should find a solution regarding cars during the Tuesday Fresh Market, a weekly outdoor market where vendors set up tents on the sidewalks of Beach Boulevard.
“Someone shouldn’t have to almost die, or potentially die in the future for them to make logical safety choices. Some kind of balance has to come. I think half the street is closed, especially in summer, we can mush all of the vendors together half the length and they will have to walk a short distance,” Fiola said.
Some comments on The Gabber’s Facebook post following Tuesday’s accident agreed with the juice vendor’s sentiment.
“Would be so much nicer with no cars on Beach Blvd,” Bryan Hilbert wrote. “There’s plenty of parking at beach and on side streets … There’s also trolleys. I believe the market would expand and draw a more diverse crowd,” Michele Redshaw wrote.
Fiola says she will not ever return to the Gulfport market.
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