Elderly driver arrested for DWI in Mamaroneck restaurant crash, 4 critical

ByCandace McCowan, Eyewitness News WABC logo
Monday, May 7, 2018
Driver arrested for DWI in Mamaroneck restaurant crash
Reporter Joe Torres has the latest on accident.

MAMARONECK, Westchester County (WABC) -- A 79-year-old woman is under arrest after slamming her car into a busy restaurant in Westchester County Sunday night.

Nine people were injured in the accident, four of them critically.

The driver, Roseanne Cassano of Yonkers, is charged with driving while intoxicated. She is due back in court on Thursday after being released on bail.

The Mamaroneck restaurant, Enzo's, was boarded up and shut down on Monday following the crash.

The popular Italian restaurant was open Sunday with many enjoying dinner just before 8 p.m.

Video shows what happened while those diners were inside.

The driver can be seen hitting another car while backing out of a handicap spot on Mamaroneck Avenue.

Moments later, that car jumped the curb, crashing right through the front of the restaurant.

"It was very crazy, can you imagine," said a witness, Rene Jimenez. "You're here, see a car and glass is on the floor, everything was crazy."

Village Mayor Tom Murphy was dining across the street when it happened. "It was surreal," said Murphy. "It looked like not a restaurant anymore, it looked like a garage. Like someone had neatly parked their car in the side of a garage."

"The owners are the nicest people in the world. That's why I pray to God that they're okay. It's a great restaurant, great people, that's why I'm just praying that everybody is okay and I'm just wishing for the best with all of them," a customer said.

It's not clear whether it was staff or diners in the restaurant who were injured..

First responders rushed three victims to Westchester Medical Center and two others to White Plains Hospital.

Mrs. Cassano's former neighbor in White Plains told us she moved to Florida a few years ago, but often returned to Westchester to visit her daughter.

"DWI has no age limits. And it is something that we've been battling with for generations and generations," said Mayor Murphy.

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