Woman plows truck through gas pump, nearly hits worker at California station

A gas station worker was nearly hit when a woman plowed through a pump at high speed in her pickup truck, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP says the woman crashed the vehicle in Auburn, about 35 miles northeast of Sacramento, when she took an exit ramp off Interstate 80 at too high a speed. The truck sped through the stop sign at an intersection and barreled across the street into a Texaco gas station.

Video of the crash showed the truck jumping a curb into the station lot where it hit a gas pump, completely removing it from the ground. A nearby station employee barely escaped being hit by the runaway vehicle.

The truck was ultimately brought to a halt when it crashed into a parked car, which was unoccupied.

The woman later told CHP that she tried to hit her breaks, but hit the gas instead. Officials estimate she was driving at roughly 50 mph when she ran through the stop sign at the intersection and into the gas station.

Officials say that the separation between the pump and the ground was so "clean" it appeared as though it was professionally removed.

A bystander was sitting in their parked car at the time of the crash, enjoying a Gatorade, when the flying pump hit the back of their vehicle and the truck crashed into the car parked next to them. There were no major injuries in the incident.

"It's a miracle that no one was seriously hurt or killed, or that there wasn't any fire," CHP-Auburn Sgt. Steve Pellegrino said.

The driver was not intoxicated at the time of the incident and likely will not face criminal charges for the crash, according to CHP.

The driver walked away with only minor cuts and bruises and was taken to a nearby hospital as a precautionary measure.