Can I have the Audi-Volvo combo – rare?

Two cars crashed into Gumtreez Pub & Grill’s deck on Monday evening after an elderly man had accidentally put his car into first gear instead of reverse.
According to eyewitnesses, the Volvo, driven by a regular customer of the restaurant, pushed an Audi parked in front of it forward and onto the restaurant’s deck.

“The driver thought his car was in reverse, but it was in first gear,” said Greg Austin, owner of Gumtreez. “Instead of hitting the brakes, he accelerated, hitting the car in front of him.”

Abigail de Bruno Austin, daughter of the owner of the restaurant, was standing in the parking lot with her mother and grandmother when the incident occurred. “We were quite close and had to move out of the way or we would have been impacted,” she said.

A woman from Mbombela and her husband were having dinner at the restaurant when they saw their own Audi coming through the wooden barricades and landing inside the restaurant with its front wheels suspended. “They were almost hit by their own car,” De Bruno Austin added.

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The Volvo hit a large pot plant on its way to the Audi, causing even more damage inside the restaurant. “The cement pot crashed against a wall of the restaurant and the wall almost broke,” De Bruno Austin added. “The impact caused the fridges on the other side of the wall to almost topple over, and a number of beer bottles fell out and broke.”

According to Greg, the elderly driver of the Volvo is a regular patron at his restaurant.

“The driver was sober, as he doesn’t ever drink. It was just an unfortunate incident.”

The restaurant, the Volvo and the Audi were all insured. No injuries occurred and no other vehicles were damaged.

This was not the first time this restaurant had vehicles plummeting into it. “It’s about a month after the anniversary of the truck,” Greg added. “On February 6, 2015, a truck veered off the road and crashed into our deck, causing major damage.”