Elderly woman crashes car through liquor store doors, injures bystander

(ABC 6 News) – An 82-year-old woman crashed her car through the front door of Cheers Liquor Store in Albert Lea at 5:31 p.m. Tuesday, seriously injuring one woman and damaging the business.

Cheers Liquor owner Jenny Heinrich said the store still saw customers in the two-hour span between the crash and a closure to get the door “boarded.”

“Even with police and an ambulance and glass everywhere, I guess people still want (the product),” she said.

The store reopened Wednesday, Sept. 14.

Public safety director JD Carlson with Albert Lea police said Elizabeth Kay Skov, 82, of Albert Lea, was pulling her 2018 white Nissan into a parking spot near the front entrance when she “panicked” and hit the accelerator rather than the brakes.

According to Albert Lea police reports, Skov drove up and over the curb, hit the 41-year-old woman and causing a serious leg injury, and “bursting past” the front doors and into the liquor store.

Heinrich said the car hit a wall inside the store as well.

Carlson said Skov was not injured in the crash, and had not been impaired, distracted, or speeding as she drove.

Heinrich said she believed the 41-year-old woman’s leg was broken, and that she had been taken to Rochester for medical treatment.

ABC 6 News will update this story as more information is available.