Down The Rabbit Hole: Car smashes into Templestowe cafe

A car has smashed through the front of a Manningham cafe, in the third local shopping centre bingle in a week.

A car smashed into Templestowe's Down The Rabbit Hole cafe on June 23. Picture: Beanhunter

Calls are getting louder for bollards to be rolled out at Manningham shopping strips following the third serious car accident in a week.

A car, believed to have been driven by an elderly man, ploughed through the front of the Down The Rabbit Hole cafe at the Newman Rd shops in Templestowe on Wednesday, June 23 about 7pm.

The cafe was closed and no one was injured in the incident, which was attended by police and paramedics.

Owner John Scarla told Leader the crash caused the cafe’s shopfront to cave in, while its front door was bent in half.

Mr Scala said the incident was a blow for the business as it recovers from Melbourne’s fourth coronavirus lockdown, with the cafe closed for several days.

Last week, seven people were hospitalised in two separate incidents at Bulleen Plaza on June 16 and The Mall in Lower Templestowe on June 17, after cars accidentally hit shoppers outside various shops.

Mr Scala said he would write to Manningham Council about installing bollards outside his cafe, and at other shopping strips in the area, to protect staff and customers.

“It’s happening far too often,” he said.

“Whether we’ve got an ageing population or really bad drivers, whatever it is, we need to protect our staff, our clientele, and our public from these mistakes.

“We need the council and local authorities to get bollards in all of these shopping strips … no one seems to be listening and getting that done.”

Meanwhile, Bulleen Plaza management has taken action following the shocking crash at its centre on June 16, when a woman and three children were hit by a car and pushed through an empty shopfront.

A spokeswoman for the centre, who declined to be named, said concrete blocks had been temporarily been placed at the site of the crash.

The spokeswoman said management would look to make further improvements and potentially turn the blocks into concrete planter boxes elsewhere in the carpark.

The council and Doncaster Police have been contacted for comment about the Templestowe cafe crash.