SUV shatters window at Orono’s Pat’s Pizza

ORONO – An SUV pulling into a parking space Wednesday afternoon outside of the venerable Pat’s Pizza restaurant surged forward, jumped the curb and shattered a front bay window.

The driver, Cecil Simon, 74, of Bangor told police that his foot slipped and hit the gas instead of the break pedal.

His wife, Janice Simon, 67, a passenger in the front, complained of chest pains and was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor as a precaution, Orono police Officer Robert Sinclair said Wednesday.

Waitress Heather Christensen, 22, of Bangor was finishing her shift cleaning up tables in the Red Room, the restaurant’s main dining room, about 20 feet from the sidewalk window and watched as the vehicle, a 2002 Ford Expedition, pulled up and kept going.

“I was shocked,” she said.

She said the vehicle pulled up slowly, then quickly accelerated forward.

Sherri Cunningham, the restaurant’s day manager, was out by the front counter checking over Christensen’s duty list when she heard a crash. Her first thoughts were that it was the sound of the heavy dishes they use being broken downstairs in the kitchen.

“I thought it was the kitchen crew dropping dishes,” she said after the accident. But checking downstairs, she only found strange looks and no broken dishes.

She said she then checked out front and saw the SUV up against the window and the broken glass.

Cunningham checked on the driver then ran back into the restaurant to call the police.

A representative of Portland Glass was expected to be on scene later Wednesday to make an assessment for replacing the glass that Cunningham thought likely would have to be ordered.

In the meantime, a plastic covering was being put up, and Cunningham said other measures would be taken so that use of the room could resume as quickly as possible.

Cunningham has been around the family restaurant – her uncle Bruce Farnsworth now owns it – since she was 5 years old, and said she didn’t recall any accidents like this.

“I’ve never seen anything like this happen,” she said.