Driver may have hit gas pedal instead of brake in Peachland crash

One of the people injured when a vehicle crashed into the Peachland library Wednesday afternoon said it was like a bomb going off.

“It sounded like an explosion,” says Jeanne Nagel. “It was the shock of a lifetime.”

Nagel was with three friends in the library reading lounge when a speeding SUV hit the building. They didn’t see it coming.

“I’m just screaming, I’m stuck, get me out of here, I couldn’t move,” says Nagel. “I couldn’t see anything but dust and dirt.”

Nagel was the worst hurt of her group with cuts and bruises.

But a 56-year-old man was at a computer in front of the window and was hit and pinned under the vehicle. He was taken to Kelowna hospital for emergency surgery and is in serious but stable condition.

The vehicle driver, a 71-year-old woman, was shaken up but not physically hurt.

“She just said she was sorry it happened but her foot slipped off the brake or something. That was all she said, she just didn’t know what happened,” says Nagel.

Police say there’s no clear cause of the accident. They’ve seized the vehicle for a mechanical inspection.