Bulleen Plaza crash: MFB called in to help remove car stuck in shop

A car ploughed into a Bulleen Plaza shop this morning, luckily while no one was inside. It’s the second time a car has smashed into a store at the centre in less than seven weeks.

Firefighters prepare to remove the car from Bulleen Plaza.

An out-of-control car has ploughed into a Bulleen shopping centre for the second time in less than seven weeks, sparking calls for bollards to be installed.

A Toyota Corolla ended up more than 10m inside a shop at Bulleen Plaza after it mounted the footpath and crashed through a glass window about 11.30am.

Nunawading highway patrol Sergeant Paul Egan said the driver, an 84-year-old Lower Templestowe man and his 80-year-old wife, who was his passenger, only received “bumps and bruises”.

The car drove metres into the store.

The MFB were called to help with the damage.

They were taken to the Austin Hospital for a check-up.

Fortunately the store they drove into — a former ANZ branch — was vacant.

A witness took to Facebook to say it was lucky the bank had closed or the driver would have gone straight through where an employee used to sit at their desk.

Police, paramedics and the MFB were called to Bulleen Plaza.

Sgt Egan said the driver told police he had sped up after a driver behind him had tooted their horn to indicate for him to hurry up.

He said police were investigating further before they decided to take any action against the man.

A car crashed into a bottle shop at Bulleen Plaza on December 19, 2019.

The MFB was called in to help remove the car, which took about an hour, with no structural damage having been done to the building.

The incident comes after a sedan drove over the footpath and through the front of a bottle shop at the centre about 3.30pm on Thursday, December 19.

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The driver, also an elderly man, was treated by paramedics at the scene.

Shoppers have taken to Facebook to say there is “clearly a need for bollards” at the centre.

Bulleen Plaza operations manager Alessia Brown told saidbollards would be installed along the footpath “as soon as possible”.

She said the centre’s bollards had previously been removed for work to be done on the footpath and it had always been planned they would be reinstalled.

Ms Brown said she believed the two recent crashes into the centre were the only ones since 2015.