Car plows into Lombard bank building

Two people were injured Wednesday morning when an 84-year-old woman drove into a Lombard building and hit an occupied office cubicle.

The Villa Park driver apparently lost control of her car on the road, then accidentally stepped on the accelerator, sending her car into a West Suburban Bank building at 711 Westmore Road.

Joe Wagner, a Lombard police officer, said he was stopped in a southbound turn lane on Westmore when he saw the car swerve around several vehicles stopped behind him. The driver left the right-hand side of the road, then turned into the exit lane of the drive-through service at the bank, Wagner said.

"It looked like after she lost control, she hit the accelerator rather than the brake and sped across the parking lot," he said.

That's when she hit a brick wall and window at the West Suburban Bank loan processing building. The car went through the wall, hitting a work cubicle on the other side at which an employee was sitting.

Workers said the collision "sounded like a bomb," said Craig Kelbus, vice president of security and loss prevention for West Suburban Bank.

Customers do not use the facility, though several other employees were in the area of the crash. The employee sitting in the cubicle, Judith Kammes, of 633 S. Yale Ave., Villa Park, was taken to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove with non-life-threatening injuries, Kelbus said. She was treated and released, a hospital spokesman said.

The driver, Arla Calyn, of 355 N. Second Ave., also was taken to Good Samaritan. She was treated for minor injuries and released, Wagner said.

Calyn was issued a ticket for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, police said.

Kelbus said the bank is expected to have the building open for business today.