Car spins off into launderette
A car went crashing through the side of a launderette in Codsall, leaving passers-by diving for cover.
The elderly driver lost control of his car after it was shunted from behind by a van.
He and a passenger, both from Perton, were taken to hospital suffering from shock. Onlookers said the drama happened as the car was being driven down a side road outside shops in Codsall Square, just off Wolverhampton Road.
Diane Bennett, assistant manager at Fitzgerald's launderette, said: "I was outside the front door of the shop and was just about to go in when a couple stopped me for a chat – thank God they did because I may not be alive now if they hadn't.
"If I had been in the shop I don't know what would have happened, it doesn't bear thinking about."
Patrick Fitzgerald, owner of the launderette, said the driver of the car appeared to be in his mid-70s. "I think the driver must have panicked when he felt the van go into the back of him and tried to slam his foot on the brake – but hit the accelerator instead.
"Normally we would have had girls working in the front of the shop."
Codsall Fish Bar worker Kyri Kyriacou, aged 27, said: "The car is an automatic and it looks like instead of hitting the brake he hit the accelerator by mistake – we heard the wheel spinning."
