A driver crashed through the windows and front doors of an Oakland Park hair salon — sending shattered glass everywhere —after being rear-ended by a drunk driver early Monday morning, according to police and the salon’s manager.
Fort Lauderdale police responded to the two-car crash at Swank Blow Dry Bar, at 2216 E. Oakland Park Blvd., about 2:28 a.m. Monday, Fort Lauderdale Police spokesperson Ali Adamson said.
“At this time, I am unable to confirm the outcome of that investigation, and I have not been informed if an arrest was made,” Adamson said.
Swank Blow Dry Bar’s manager, Sher Filliater, said she raced to the salon at 3:30 a.m. after police phoned her about the crash.
“It’s a hot mess,” said Filliater, who has been sweeping up glass and mopping up motor oil on the hardwood floors all morning. “The whole front of my salon is just gone.”
According to the police report, a 62-year-old man driving a 2017 Honda sedan rear-ended the 28-year-old driver of a 2019 Hyundai sedan at the corner of North Federal Highway and East Oakland Park Boulevard.
Filliater said police told her that the Honda driver refused to take a breathalyzer and was handcuffed and taken to a nearby hospital. The second driver who careened through the windows, she said, “passed out immediately and police said when he woke up, he was hysterical.” That driver also was taken to a hospital.
Filliater, says she and Swank Blow Dry’s owners, who live in Sarasota, have been calling salon customers all morning to cancel appointments.
“The clients were very understanding, and they were like, ‘Do you want me to come by and help clean up?'” Filliater said. “I had to tell staff they couldn’t come in, and there’s some heartache, because some staff live paycheck to paycheck.”
The impact destroyed the salon’s Plexiglas front doors, ruined salon chairs and hair-care products and wrecked its wine bar, Filliater says. By early afternoon, salon workers started nailing up plywood boards over the windows.
The salon will reopen Tuesday and — for now — clients will need to come in through the back door, Filliater said.
“Thank God, it happened in the wee hours of the morning, and no clients were harmed,” she said.
