UPDATE: According to Saanich Police, municipal crews are asking the public to avoid the area until they complete an investigation of the structural integrity of the building.
Police are treating this as a medical incident, as the driver is fully cooperating with the investigation and neither drugs nor alcohol were involved.
Earlier: The driver of an SUV was taken to the hospital after they crashed into Kuku’s restaurant this morning.
The vehicle slammed into Kuku’s Indian Takeout and Delivery restaurant on Burnside Road at around 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
Paramedics, fire crews, and police responded to the crash within 10 minutes of the incident, and no other injuries have been reported.
According to witness Liz Gipson who works at Proline Property Managers next door to Kuku’s, the driver suffered minor injuries as a result of the crash.
“I would say there is at least 12 feet of damage, the front right side of it is completely damaged. The restaurant’s going to be closed, as there is a significant amount of structural damage,” Gipson tells Victoria Buzz.
Gipson also says she spoke to the driver of the red SUV, a young woman, who told her that she swerved her vehicle as another car came into the lane she was in.
In doing so, the driver’s SUV crashed into Kuku’s, came up on the sidewalk, hit a pole near the 7-Eleven, and spun into the parking lot.
At this time, a stretch of Burnside Road has been reduced to one-lane traffic as police investigate the incident.
