WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Truck crashes through bar's front door

Truck crashes through bar's front door

By Jim Shannon - bio | email

PORT VINCENT, LA (WAFB) - A pickup truck, estimated at going over 100 miles per hour, ripped through the front door of a new bar early Saturday morning as the owner and his workers cleaned up.

Nick Plumer owns Pirogue's Landing on LA 42 near Port Vincent, which has only been open for two months. Plumer and two other employees were inside. One is his fiancée, Shai Fontenot. The other is the bar's manager, Bobbi Sullivan.

The trio was re-stocking and cleaning the tavern after a busy Friday night when the truck missed a sharp turn in the road and plowed right into it. Plumer said the sheriff's office estimated the driver to be going in excess of 100 miles per hour when he reached the curve.

"Instead of making the turn, he came off the road and flew approximately 50 feet," Plumer said. "There's a mud hole out there where the truck landed."

A surveillance camera inside the establishment captured the dramatic scene on video. The truck came within feet of where Plumer and Fontenot were sitting. They took off running as the pickup took out barstools on its way inside.

"It happened all so quickly that your mind couldn't process it. I go back and watch the video over and over. We were in the perfect spot in the bar that nothing touched us," the owner added.

No one was seriously hurt. The driver only had a scratch on his arm and was taken to a local hospital. The truck was pulled out of the bar and repairs are now underway.