A school bus driver has received a citation after the bus crashed into J&S New York Pizza at Varina Station on Wednesday morning. The town said three people suffered minor injuries.
The crash happened around 7:30 a.m. when the bus hit a box truck and crashed into J&S New York Pizza at Varina Station.
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According to the town, the bus driver has received a citation for failure to yield causing serious bodily injury.
Three people were injured in the crash but have since been released from the hospital. The bus driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the two people in the box truck had minor injuries. Wake County Schools said the bus driver's two children were on the bus at the time of the crash, but they were not injured.
Sky 5 flew over the crash and saw crews towing away the box truck that had a broken windshield.
A nearby business, Brick Bar and Misfits Kitchen, captured video of the crash as it happened on a camera that was facing Broad Street.
In the video, you can see the box truck driving down Broad Street and pass a different school bus that wasn't involved waiting to turn onto Ransdell Road in the left turn lane.
As the box truck was behind the uninvolved bus crossing the four-way intersection, the school bus that was involved in the crash tries to cross the intersection from Ransdell Road and hits the box truck on the driver's side. The bus then veers into the side of the restaurant.
Traffic on Broad Street flows uninterrupted at that intersection. Stop signs are posted on Ransdsell Road and Fayetteville Street where they meet Broad Street.
Photos showed a Wake County school bus crashed into the side of the pizza shop, causing damage to an outdoor seating area, the building's facade and a windowed entrance.
WRAL News spoke to the family that owns the restaurant, which has been there for nearly 20 years.
The owners -- Lori Shaver, Phil Cammarata and Ven Cammarata -- said they were heartbroken when they learned about what happened to their pizza shop.
"We got a phone call from the police department and they let us know a bus drove through the building," Lori Shaver said. "We're waiting on the structural damage. When we walked inside, there was glass everywhere, and the tables were pushed around. It's very devastating."
A friend of the restaurant owner shared a photo from the inside of the pizza shop, which showed broken windows, shattered glass and bricks on the floor at the entrance to the outdoor patio.
"Our restaurant is destroyed, and I don't know how this even happened," Ven Cammarata said. "I don't even know how this even happened. The speed limit is 20 here. How can something like this possibly happen, with a school bus, nevertheless? It's very sad."
"We're just really glad no one's hurt," Phil Cammarata said.
He said the driver is in the hospital but is expected to be okay.
"The driver who got hit, he's in the hospital, but it doesn't seem like anything real major," Phil Cammarata said. "It's just tragic. We're going to be out a couple weeks. We have another restaurant over in Apex. We're just a small family business trying to get through so we'll see how it goes."
There are about 30 employees who work at the Fuquay-Varina pizza restaurant. The owners said those workers are their family and they will continue to get paid while the restaurant is closed, which they expect could take several weeks at a minimum.
The family owns another restaurant under the same name in Apex and said some employees may be able to work there.
"We'll see what we can do," Phil Cammarata said. We have a lot of mouths to feed, we have a lot of employees. We're going to have to work things out. Main focus though, I'm glad nobody got hurt. This could have been real bad."
"I'm very happy no kids got hurt," Ven Cammarata said. "My first question was about the kids. But this is devastating, beyond devastating."
One witness, Chris Capot, said he saw paramedics checking on a person. He said the intersection at Varina Station where the crash happened can be tough to commute through.
"It's a tough intersection there and there's no lights. Cars cross it all the time. I cross it to go to the dog day care... yeah, it's a difficult place," Capot said.
