No charges in Warrenville restaurant crash

A 71-year-old St. Charles woman won’t be ticketed for running her car into the outdoor dining area of a Warrenville restaurant and injuring five people, authorities announced Wednesday.

Warrenville police said their investigation found that the woman “inadvertently stepped on the gas rather than the brake,” which caused the Sept. 7 lunchtime crash at the Rock Bottom Brewery restaurant, 28256 Diehl Road.

But based on what happened — along with the accident occurring on private property — no citations will be issued at this time, Deputy Chief Dave Schar said in a news release.

Officials are awaiting the results of a chemical test the driver voluntarily agreed to take. The results “may lead to a re-evaluation of charges being filed,” Schar wrote.

The crash happened about 12:24 p.m. while the driver was pulling her 2011 Buick LaCrosse into a handicapped parking space. After she inadvertently stepped on the gas, authorities said, the car traveled over a sidewalk and landscaping, through a wrought-iron gate and through the outdoor seating area before smashing into the east side of the building.

Four of the people who were injured were restaurant guests sitting at the same table on the patio.

The fifth person injured was a waitress who was pinned between the building and the vehicle before the car reversed off the patio at “high speed” and backed into an unoccupied parked car. That collision caused “a chain reaction in which four other vehicles sustained various degrees of damage,” police said.

Authorities said they determined what happened by interviewing the driver and witnesses. Members of the DuPage County Accident Reconstruction Task Force also retrieved data from the car’s “black box,” which recorded the event.

Three of the five injured people were released from the hospital hours after the accident. Schar said the other two people, including the restaurant employee, suffered injuries that weren’t life-threatening.