Car that crashed into East Haven restaurant left giant hole, minor inside damage, co-owner says

EAST HAVEN — Workers were sweeping and vacuuming at the Hot Roostah Restaurant Monday morning, three days after an out-of-control car crashed into the East Haven building, putting a massive hole in it. The driver initially was trapped inside the SUV, which crashed into the brick and cinder block building and came to a rest with its back end several feet off the ground — its right rear wheel hooked into the hole it had created. The driver had serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening, police said at the time. An update on the person’s condition was not available from police Monday morning. The crash happened shortly before 5:30 a.m. Friday. A preliminary investigation showed that the driver had just finished working a night shift and fell asleep behind the wheel, Capt. Joseph Murgo said that day, adding the male driver wasn’t believed to have been impaired. “It appears that he lost control of his vehicle, struck a street sign and a telephone pole which catapulted him into the unoccupied building,” Murgo said. In the meantime, the restaurant's co-owners, Annastassia Scott, the self-described “wingman” to husband and primary owner Basil Waite, are cleaning up as best they can until the building’s owner can get the gaping hole fixed. Once the building can be inspected, the restaurant can reopen, she said. Wrecked wall aside, the car didn’t heavily damage the inside of the restaurant, Scott said Monday. Some chairs in the Jamaican eatery's small dining area were ruined, and there are dents here and there, but the dents are nothing that can’t be banged out with a hammer, she said. The cleanup mostly involves “just bricks and dust,” she said. Scott said she feels bad for the driver, who she heard had just worked two back-to-back shifts in a row. She planned to ask how he’s doing. She’s thankful the crash didn’t happen about two hours later, when the restaurant would have been open for business, she said; if people were in the chairs, it would have had a much different ending. “Everything else can be replaced,” Scott said.