Utah pizza delivery driver may need surgery after customer drove into storefront

SANDY, Utah — A pizza delivery driver may need surgery after a customer crashed through the front of a Sandy restaurant Friday night.

“Now, he has a broken leg,” said Biplove Timilsina, owner of Big Daddy’s Pizza. “They don’t know if they have to do a surgery. We’ll find out next week. It’s going to be very hard on him.”

Surveillance video shows a customer accidentally accelerating into the business after 8 p.m., then slamming and pinning the worker.

 

“It was very hard for me to watch it, you know, our store getting destroyed,” Timilsina said, “especially my employee getting hurt so badly. He was just thrown up in the air. I couldn’t even sleep last night, so that’s how bad it was.”

Now, the restaurant is preparing for an extended closure.

The team is cleaning up, but Timilsina is having trouble finding a contractor to make the repairs so they can reopen. He’s worried about losing customers and employees.

Timilsina said his delivery driver was released from the hospital, but he works several jobs and it may take him months to recover.

“He’s in very good spirits,” Timilsina said. “He’s a very good guy.”

A spokesman for the Sandy Fire Department said no criminal charges are expected for the driver who caused the crash.

“He came to buy pizza,” Timilsina said. “He had ordered a pizza and a soda, and his leg got stuck on the gas. Instead of hitting the brake, he just accelerated inside. He was crying and he was very sad.”

Timilsina called it a reminder to drive carefully.