By CASEY NEILL
A MAN washing clothes got an almighty fright when a car careered into a Springvale South laundromat last Thursday night.
Constable Michael Batley said the sedan hit the north-western corner of the building, which is on the corner of Athol and Springvale roads, about 8.30pm.
“We don’t know the direction it was coming from,” he said.
“The vehicle’s gone into the wall. There were occupants in the vehicle that did not remain until police arrived.
“They are four young females. They were asked to remain but refused to remain.”
Const Batley has since spoken to the driver, and the car’s owner, but has not laid any charges.
He has also obtained CCTV images of the incident and taken a statement from a witness.
“There was one bloke who was sitting in a chair about two metres away from where the car came through,” he said.
“He got an almighty fright. He’s OK. No one was injured.”
Const Batley said there was a hole in the building about two metres wide and tall.
“It’s cracked the whole structure of the building,” he said.
“The building’s going to have to be reinforced or torn down.”
A City of Greater Dandenong engineer attended.
“He made sure the building was safe enough so it wouldn’t’ collapse if we removed the vehicle,” Const Batley said.
The heavily-damaged car was towed from the scene.
Electricians attended to shut down power to the store and surrounds, because the car struck the building’s fuse box.
“There were fears of live electricity,” Const Batley said.
“We couldn’t remove the vehicle until the electricity was shut off.”
Greater Dandenong SES unit controller Paul Daniel said his crew was called to the scene about 9.05pm.
“The job was complicated by the fact they took out a fuse box on the property, so we had to wait for the power company to arrive,” he said.
