Bookstore in T.O. site of car crash

CLEANING UP AFTER AN UNEXPECTED DRIVE-THROUGH--Valley Book and Bible owner Dave Wilke and his crew began cleaning up after a sports utility vehicle drove through the front of store. The accident destroyed much of the card and music department. The only injuries were to the motorist. After a thud, instantly fol- lowed by the sounds of breaking glass and a huge, explosive crash, 46-year-old Dawn Anderson, her Chevy S10 Blazer and a large tree were inside the Valley Book and Bible store

That was about 7:15 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 23, a couple of hours after the store had closed, said manager Michael Darden, 34. His customers were gone, but Darden was still inside the store when the vehicle smashed through the front doors.

Darden had had a busy day, his store filled with customers who'd come to buy Christian music DVDs, he said. After saying goodbye to the last customer and to his staff, Darden locked up and started putting the store back in order. Later he spent time doing paperwork in an office behind the counter, he said.

There was nothing unusual about that, explained the Ventura resident. But what happened next was definitely out of the ordinary.

"I heard a sound that I know now must've been when she hit the tree," Darden said.

According to Senior Dep. Mark Grambling, Anderson's car was going east on Thousand Oaks Boulevard when, according to her statement, a blue car swerved to- ward her and she lost control. Her Blazer crossed two opposing lanes of traffic, jumped the curb and took out a tree planted along the sidewalk.

"Then, a split second later I heard glass breaking and I thought someone was breaking in," Darden said.

Then he heard the big crash sound and knew a car had hit the outside of the bookstore, he said. He sprang to his feet, ran out to the counter and called 911. While on the phone with the 911 opera- tor, he saw Anderson inside his store and assumed she'd been in the crash. A moment later he saw a man offering help to the dazed woman, who said she was alone in the vehicle and doing all right, he said.

"All this time I still didn't know the car was inside the store. It was dark and dusty and I couldn't see it from where I was standing," Darden said.

He was aware of an unusual odor in the air and, although it turned out to be the smell of the vehicle's airbag inflating, at the time he thought it might be a gas leak. He decided to get out quickly and as he approached the front section that just a few hours before had been filled with cus- tomers, he was shocked to see the entire vehicle was inside the store, he said.

"It looked like a scene you'd find on the Universal Studios tour," Darden said.

Grambling, the officer on the scene, agreed.

"The car was completely in the store and had squashed a bunch of merchandise," he said. The Blazer itself sustained a lot of damage, including three flat tires. Anderson complained of back pain. There was no indication she was under the influence of any- thing, Grambling said. No wit- ness to the accident came forth, he said, and no further investi- gation is expected..

And although it might seem like the driver was having a very bad day, Grambling is quick to point out how lucky she was to have not injured anyone else and to have missed hitting a concrete sign, light post and a very large tree.

"It was just property dam- age," she said.

"I don't know how she got the car in here from the path it went from the tree to the front of the store," said Darden. He is very thankful, he said, that he wasn't in the front of the store at the time of the crash and is glad God pro- tected both him and Anderson.

"I've learned anything can happen at any time, so we should all be prepared," said Darden.