Car crashes into Camperdown shop

The male driver and sole occupant was taken to South West Healthcare's Warrnambool Base Hospital with upper body injuries after the Tesla he was driving crashed into the butcher shop.

A CFA spokeswoman said its units were called to a car crashed into a structure on Manifold Street in Camperdown in the early hours of Tuesday, August 29 at 1.24am.

She said firefighters said a vehicle had crashed into the shopfront but no-one was trapped as a result of the accident.

The butcher shop is on the corner of Leura and Manifold streets and is in the heart of the town. The dog-leg intersection where the shop is situated connects Manifold Street/ Princes Highway, Cressy Street/Camperdown - Lismore Road and Leura Street/ Camperdown - Cobden Road which are all major town thoroughfares.

The CFA spokeswoman said five trucks were on scene and the SES unit attended, working to stabilise the building.

She said the incident was brought under control at 1.42am and declared safe at 2.25am.

"CFA crews remained on scene until the vehicle was on the tow truck," she said.

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said paramedics were called about 1.25am.

"A man, believed to be in his 20s with an upper body injury, was transported to South West Healthcare Warrnambool in a stable condition," she said.

Camperdown SES unit controller Michael Carman said it had about 10 volunteers on scene as well as CFA crews from Bostocks Creek, Cobden and Camperdown, Warrnambool police and a Camperdown ambulance officers.

He said the male driver was "out and walking around" when SES volunteers arrived.

"We got a job for a person possibly trapped in a car that ran into a building," Mr Carman said. "Once we arrived on scene he'd gotten himself out of the vehicle.

"We stabilised the front verandah of the butchers, we disconnected the car battery - once we did a bit of googling.

"We'd never dealt with an electric car before. It was a Tesla so it was the first time for us. We took a bit of extra precaution on this one."

Mr Carman said the volunteers disconnected the battery as the tow truck pulled up. They removed the vehicle from the building, stabilised the verandah and "taped up the big front window and the door that broke".

Butcher Rob Field said on Tuesday afternoon the clean-up and repair efforts had begun in earnest.

"We're shut for the day," Mr Field said.

"He must have come straight through the intersection and he's ploughed into the corner of the verandah and kept going.

"He hit the front door and hit a park bench out the front of the shop and that's gone through the front window.

"Hopefully we're back up and running tomorrow. We've got builders here at the moment, boarding things up, because it's a massive window, it's about 15-feet long so they've boarded that up and (Warrnambool's) Merri Aluminium are on their way to put in a new door so hopefully we're back up-and-running tomorrow."

The employee said he was unsure what the damage bill would be and said his boss had just ducked home to be with his wife who'd recently had a new baby.

Mr Field said the closure and repair work meant a day of lost trade for the butcher shop.

"It's lucky it's probably one of the quieter days of the week," he said. "I don't know how the young bloke ended up but he's done a fair bit of damage. There's no skid marks out the front.

"There's glass everywhere. We're finding glass all the time."

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