WILKESBORO
Kenneth Mack Anderson had just finished dinner Wednesday and was reading the newspaper at the Coffee House on Oakwoods Road when a van blasted through the wall, knocking him out of his booth and pinning him against the counter.
"I'm really sore, but other than that I'm OK," Anderson said yesterday.
Video-surveillance footage from inside the restaurant shows him sitting there at 8:16 p.m. in a booth in the smoking section. Suddenly glass and debris start flying, and Anderson is propelled eight feet sideways.
Trapped against the counter, he looks around, reaches down for his hat and puts it back on his head.
Three other diners crawled over the counter to get out. A woman stopped and helped Anderson, but he said he doesn't know who she was.
Anderson, 61, was treated at Wilkes Regional Medical Center and released.
So was the driver, Mary Lou Lunsford Sheppard, 60.
"She's just bruised up and sore," said her husband, Bill. "There was a car stopping in front of her, and she hit the gas instead of the brake."
Sheppard was driving south on Oakwoods at about 55 mph when she crossed the center line, Wilkesboro police said. She hit an SUV and two parked vehicles before driving through the wall.
No one else was injured.
Sheppard was cited for speeding and for failing to stay in her lane.
The Coffee House's managers said they hope to reopen by next week. The wreck took out the restaurant's well-known gumball machine -- patrons get a free meal if they win a certain kind of gumball.
"There's gumballs everywhere," Anderson said.
"I got a free meal, I reckon. I didn't get to pay nobody before I left."
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
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