Bellevue Driver Plows into Golden Steer Choice Meats

BELLEVUE --  A Bellevue woman crashed her car into an Overlake-neighorhood butcher shop Thursday morning where she had planned to buy ingredients for that night's family dinner.

A Lexus driven by a 78-year-old Bellevue woman, Edris Harbiston, tried to park her Lexus L430 front of when she plowed into the store before 10:30 a.m., crushing the store's front door and front door displays. The Lexus stopped when it hit the meat case about three feet into the shop, damaging the case and damaging the freezer lines, said butcher and shop owner John Dick.

No one was injured in the crash.

Dick said that it would be difficult to remain open while the shop was being repaired because of the lack of refrigeration. However, he said he planned to be around his office and help customers out as much as possible. On Thursday, he helped out at least one customer at the shop's back door.

Bellevue police Officer Dave Asheim said that Harbiston would face no charges in the crash. Asheim said she told police that she wanted to stop and couldn't stop; so it would appear that either her accelerator stuck or that she confused the brake and the gas pedals.

No one was injured, though the driver was shaken up and upset after the crash.

"We were behind the meat counter, so no one was hurt," Dick said. ""It was like slow motion. I heard a sound and then a car goes through the wall."

Dick said he looked up and saw things flying as the car came crashing in, so he and his two employees ran out of the store.

There were no customers in the store when the car came through the wall.

"There could have a kid running around in the front, " Dick said. "It could have been a lot worse."

Edris Harbiston's husband, Jack, said his wife was not injured, though she was very "nervous" afterward.

"I asked her and she said the first thing she recalled was she was all the way inside the store," said Jack Harbiston, who was waiting for the Lexus to get towed away.

The Harbistons have been good Golden Steer customers for between 15 and 20 years, they and the Harbiston's said. Dick said that the Harbistons started buying meat there from his father, who founded Golden Steer in 1968. The store has been in the same location for more than 40 years.

The shopping center where Golden Steer is located has seen its share of cars crashing into stores, Dick and other shop owners said. About a year ago, a car crashed into the barber shop next door. Three years ago, another person crashed into Golden Steer's side window, but did not do as much damage as the Lexus did on Thursday. In those cases as well, the drivers had intended to park and the cars accelerated into the stores.

To show there was no hard feelings, Dick gave the Harbistons four pounds of top sirloin for the beef burgundy for no charge.