The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Updated 12:31 a.m., July 13, 2008

Steamboat Springs — A Georgia woman was injured Saturday afternoon when she was struck by a car while sitting outside Azteca Taqueria on Ninth Street.

An elderly man driving a Honda Pilot with New Mexico plates jumped the curb as he was pulling into a diagonal parking space at about 2:45 p.m., plowing into the woman and the Azteca building, Steamboat Springs police Officer Stuart Hutton said at the scene.

Crushed flowerpots and broken sidewalk posts roping off mangled outdoor tables littered the sidewalk on Ninth Street. No one else was injured.

The injured woman was transported via ambulance to Yampa Valley Medical Center.

The woman, who was eating at Azteca with family, had moved to another table to make a cell phone call, said her aunt, who did not wish to be named. The injured woman was struck by the front right side of the vehicle, she said.

“She was very, very lucky the car only hit her legs and feet,” the woman’s aunt said.

Steamboat police and Colorado State Patrol are still investigating the crash. The names and ages of the driver and victim were not immediately available Saturday.

Azteca Taqueria, at 116 Ninth St., also sustained minor damage and flooding. The impact of the vehicle pushed in the exterior brick wall several inches and burst a water pipe in the wall. Employees scrambled to mop up the mess while the pipe still sputtered away.

“It was like Niagara Falls in here for awhile,” co-owner Jim Ruggiero said.

The restaurant is closed for the rest of today but will open Sunday.

“We’re lucky no one got hurt more seriously,” Ruggiero said.