Boy in wheelchair among two seriously injured when van crashes into Conover eatery

CONOVER, N.C. — Two people – including a boy in a wheelchair – are seriously injured after a van crashed through the front of a restaurant in Conover off N.C. 16.

Investigators say a female driver accidentally hit the gas, accelerating the van toward Sigmon’s Grill and hitting two people that had just gotten out of the same van -- a boy in a wheelchair and a woman who was assisting him.

Channel 9 reporter Stephanie Tinoco later learned the driver was the boy's mother.

Amanda Miller, manager and business partner of Sigmon's Grill, told our news partners at the Hickory Daily Record that the accident happened shortly before noon.

"I was cooking (when the accident happened) and it just sounded like a bomb went off, just an explosion," Miller told the Daily Record. "People were sitting at the tables. When I looked out, there was smoke and debris, dust, everywhere."

Channel 9 also spoke with Miller, who said after she heard the noise, she ran out of the back door straight to the front of the building and saw two people on the ground.

The woman was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center while the man was taken by ambulance to.Catawba Valley Medical Center, authorities said. Highway Patrol said both victims have serious injuries, but that they are non-life threatening.

Paullete Sigmon, who lives nearby, told reporter Stephanie Tinoco that she knows the family involved.

"We know the lady this happened to unfortunately," Sigmon said. "They’re very nice, very involved in the community. Very nice lady. Very kind lady."

Cox Media Group