BERWICK - A car smashed through one of the sheet glass windows of Eyeland Optical Center Thursday afternoon, sending heavy chairs, tables and glasses flying before coming to rest in the waiting area.

The passenger, who identified herself only as Charlene, said she was coming to the store at 1900 W. Front St. for an appointment when the Ford Fusion “just went.”

The driver, her son, who used a walker, told police he has a neurological condition and thought he was stepping on the brake as he pulled into a parking space in front of the plate glass, which stretched from the ground to the roof. Instead, he was stepping on the gas.

The car hit the glass straight on, shattering the window, but missing the matching panes of glass on either side.

Three staff members were in the store: Manager Marcy Morris, Optician Cindy Pierce and Dr. George Falcone.

Luckily, no customers were in the center at the time, and none of the employees was in the waiting area, Morris said.

She was near the counter when the car came crashing through the glass at about 12:30.

“I’m still shaking a little,” she said, after the car was towed away.

Staffers hurried to check on the car’s two occupants, she said. Neither appeared hurt.

“We just told them to stay put until police came,” she said.

Mother and son waited for a ride while Pierce picked her way through the debris and out the space where the window had been to deliver boxes of contact lenses to a customer who pulled up on the parking lot.

We’ll have more on this story as the information becomes available.