No injuries as car crashes through business - Brantford Expositor

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Ten minutes after staff members at Massage Addict at 185 King George Rd. turned off the lights Saturday and left the office, a car crashed through the front of the building leaving a gaping hole.

“It looks like a bomb went off,” said a shaken Joanne Patak, who owns and operates the clinic with her registered massage therapist husband, Scott Patak.

“Most of the car was in the clinic and went in so far it hit one of our treatment rooms. A half hour earlier, there was a massage therapist in that room with a customer.”

The accident happened at about 4:45 p.m. Brantford police could provide no further information on the weekend.

The clinic is exempt from the new provincial shutdown because it is considered an essential business, providing massage, chiropractic and acupuncture treatments that help people dealing with acute pain, stress or anxiety.

Patak said she and other staff members hurried back to the clinic to retrieve files, equipment and personal items before the place was boarded up. Most appointments will be rescheduled to Massage Addict’s second location in the Sobey’s plaza in West Brant.

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The damage was limited to the massage clinic and avoided the Bulk Barn store on one side and businesses under construction on the other.

“The construction crew was just amazing,” said Patak. “They came over and helped board up the clinic once we got things out to move to our other clinic.

“Everyone has been so helpful – the landlord, the workers, our employees – and we feel so blessed that no one was hurt.”

Oddly, it isn’t Patak’s first experience with having to deal with a car crashing into her business.

“It also happened to us last August in West Brant. A car hit the clinic but there wasn’t enough damage for us to have to close.”

Patak said an estimate of the damage in Saturday’s crash has yet to be set.

“This is an awful thing to have happen but our staff is safe and the driver wasn’t hurt. In the bigger picture, that’s all that matters.”

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