KAPAA — The Lemongrass Grill Seafood and Bar opened Friday evening, nearly 24-hours after a suspected intoxicated driver overturned his Jeep on the establishment’s front patio Thursday night. According to police, 23-year-old Timothy Hoffmeyer of Kapaa was not injured after
KAPAA — The Lemongrass Grill Seafood and Bar opened Friday evening, nearly 24-hours after a suspected intoxicated driver overturned his Jeep on the establishment’s front patio Thursday night.
According to police, 23-year-old Timothy Hoffmeyer of Kapaa was not injured after crashing his Jeep Cherokee into the restaurant at approximately 9:55 p.m.
All of the customers were out of the building by 9 p.m. and the staff was gone before the accident, according to assistant manager David White.
Responding police officers found the Jeep lying on its roof on the lanai of Lemongrass Grill Seafood and Bar. The Jeep sustained major damages but the driver, the only occupant in the car, made his way out of the vehicle unharmed. He was released on a $250 bail.
“How he survived is beyond me,” White said Friday. “He landed upside down with the front of the Jeep inside the patio sliding doors that were taken out, and part of the rock wall.”
The accident was bizarre, White said, and he can only assume that the driver swerved and that the car overturned as a result of going over curbing and slid though the rock wall.
“I am not sure how it happened,” he added.
The restaurant, 4-871 Kuhio Highway, sustained damages to a rock wall, glass doors, tables, chairs and decorative items. An estimate of the damages wasn’t available Friday afternoon.
“It was more clean up that anything where the Jeep came into the entrance to the patio,” White said of the damages. “As far the building, there was a lot of glass but its all cleaned up.”
The police department said the investigation is ongoing.
Traffic on Kuhio Highway was stopped for approximately 20 minutes while the vehicle was removed from the scene. Several people stopped to take photos, and White stayed overnight at the restaurant to secure the building because the patio door damage made the building unsecured.
The doors were replaced on Friday afternoon and the oil and fuel was cleaned off the patio by evening.
Lemongrass is owned by William Choy and opened in 2001 and has since become a popular Eastside destination.
When the Jeep went over the rock wall it broke rock pillars and stone vases, and sent large decorative wagon wheels flying across the patio causing more damage along the wall including the pond, Choy said.
The damage included four smashed patio tables and double-wide patio doors. Glass and debris were sent flying into the main lobby and down the hall to the back of the restaurant.
Choy said he was happy that people were not injured in the accident.
“It was a slow night and people came early,” Choy said.
