A MOTORIST who ploughed into the side of a pub, causing thousands of pounds-worth of damage, said he hit the accelerator instead of the brake after clipping another car.
Stuart Thomson, 74, was driving his silver Ford Focus away from Driffield's All Saints' Parish Church after the Sunday service at noon when he hit a silver Vauxhall Astra, pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal and crashed front-first int
o the Red Lion pub.
An elderly lady sitting on the other side of the wall waiting for her Sunday dinner was unhurt and unfazed by the crash, simply asking to move to another table!
"The lady had just ordered her dinner and was waiting for her drink when it happened.
"She just asked if she could move seats," landlady Joanne Walton said.
Mrs Walton was about to start a busy Sunday lunch service when the crash happened and said: "I was just sitting at the bar, looked up and the window had shattered. I thought someone had thrown something at it."
"The car was stuck in the wall all day because they weren't sure if the wall would stay up," she added.
Landlord Lee Walton added: "It was lucky because the booth was there which absorbed most of the impact. If it had been six inches to the other side the car would have come into the bar."
Police cordoned off Middle Street North for more than five hours while a structural engineer from East Riding of Yorkshire Council was called to the scene amid fears the impact would cause part of the building to collapse.
A fire crew from Driffield swilled away fuel and oil from the road and made the car safe by disconnecting the battery.
With 30 people waiting in the bar area to be seated for lunch, Mr Walton said they were so determined to keep things running as normal they moved the pool table to the other side of the bar to set up some tables. "It was just about carrying on as normal," Mr Walton said.
The couple, who took over the running of the pub just over two months ago, say it is now business as usual, although work to rebuild the damaged wall is expected to take at least two months.
Jason Hullah, of Magnolia Close, also believes he had a lucky escape as he had been driving a blue Vauxhall Vectra along Middle Street North towards North Street when the scene unfolded in front of him.
With girlfriend Clare Robinson and three-month old daughter Poppy-May in the car, Mr Hullah slammed on his breaks as the Focus veered straight towards him.
"It could have been a lot worse because a lot of people were walking down the street. He would have come straight for me if he hadn't gone in between two parked cars and into the side of the pub.
"It was a shock because I had my girlfriend and baby in the car," he added.
Luckily all three were unharmed but Mr Hullah said: "Two seconds earlier he would have been in the side of me."
A few years ago Mr Thomson, of New Walk, who is the Wings Appeal officer and standard bearer for the Driffield branch of the RAF Association and served in the RAF, was involved in a similar incident when his car crashed into a garden wall on Harper Street.
He said about Sunday's crash: "I was coming down Church Lane and as I got to the bottom I could see there was nothing coming from my left.
"I pulled forward to the right to see if anything was coming but couldn't see anything and the next thing I knew there was a bang," he said.
"I walked off from there but they weren't sure about the wall," he added.
