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Truck crashes into Henderson restaurant owned by local celebrity chef

Posted at 9:13 PM, Aug 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-17 13:22:30-04

A man lost control of his truck and crashed through celebrity chef Carla Pellegrino's Henderson restaurant.

Pellegrino got a call from her sister late Monday afternoon that a truck had crashed into Bratalian.
 
"She said there is a car inside Bratalian, I could not believe, I wasn't even nervous 'cause it sounds so unbelievable," Pellegrino said.
 
The restaurant hadn't been opened for the day yet.

"My employee was getting to work she was 5 minutes late ... thank god," Pellegrino said.

She said thankfully her sister, who is a chef there, was also running late.

Perhaps the craziest circumstance is 25-year-old Blake Carr's story. It was his first day on the job at a nearby home design store. He wasn't even at work for an hour yet when he said a man driving a truck went over a median, crossed 6 lanes of traffic, jumped curb, hit a sign and then drove into the restaurant.
 
He says his adrenaline took over and he ran to help.

"My greatest struggle was running in there not knowing what I was going to see when I opened that door," Carr said.

Carr added the parents of the man driving the truck said he had epilepsy and suffered a seizure.

Police say the man suffered minor injuries. They also told us this is an ongoing investigation and they are looking into whether the crash was a result of a medical condition or if drugs and alcohol played a factor.

A GoFundMe account has been started to help the employees of the restaurant. According to the GoFundMe, 15 people depend on the restaurant to support their families and 10 of those people are the "key people" to the restaurant's success.

The restaurant is insured and Pellegrino expects the damage to be repaired. However, she is considered about the loss of income for her employees and that is why the GoFundMe has been established.