“I heard the most thunderous noise” Oliver’s Market car crash

Close up photo of the car inside of Oliver's Market at the Montecito Center on Feb. 13th. (Courtesy of Dylan Cooper)

By Chase Soylu Chee, News Editor & Video Editor & Francisco Linares, Sports Editor

Maria Carrillo High School was riddled with chatter through the halls after the Montecito Center’s very own Round Table was hit by a car after the Oliver’s Market was hit a week before. 

In a span of two weeks, the Montecito Shopping Center experienced two car crashes. One car on Feb. 13 drove straight from the entrance on the road through the Oliver’s Market store and the second one drove up on the curb to hit the wall on the Round Table Pizza on Feb. 18.

Thankfully, no MCHS students were hurt during both of the car crashes. Unfortunately though, seven individuals were hurt, four being hospitalized, and MCHS alumni and Oliver’s Market Grocery Clerk Dylan Cooper witnessed it. 

“I was stocking pasta sauces, and speaking with a customer. I was joking with a customer on aisle four, when I heard the most thunderous noise, just like 15 feet away from me,” said Cooper.

Immediately after the crash went through the market, a cash register, lottery machine, and teddy bear display scattered on the floor ending up with seven people injured.

“I was sort of stuck in that moment. A couple seconds later, we heard over the loudspeakers telling all of the employees to get the customers out and then a couple minutes after telling us to leave as well,” said Cooper. 

Responding to the event, multiple paramedics, ambulances, and police showed up to assist people involved in the crash and investigate the causation of the crash. The driver was an elderly woman driving with a medical boot on her leg, in which the boot caused complications with braking and accelerating correctly. 

“It’s a perfect picture in my head, and I wasn’t shocked for like a couple hours after that. I was like 15 feet away. I could have died technically if I was just a few feet towards it. If I was bagging that day,” said Cooper. 

Two days after, Cooper went back to work catching up and recuperating with co-workers about what occurred, even being instructed to park near the front to ensure another crash does not happen again. Fortunately, Cooper was not working during the second car crash at Round Table Pizza on Feb. 18. 

Looking back at the crash, Cooper remarked, “Every now and then I hear something shatter. I think, O God, another car. Like, a third one?”