A sanitation truck clearing snow off a Queens street plowed through with such force that it threw mounds of heavy snow across the sidewalk and into a restaurant, blowing out the storefront and knocking over a customer seated inside, video shows.
It's the second time in just over a week that a New York City business has been damaged by snow and ice from a quick-moving snowplow truck.
It's not clear in either case whether the truck was speeding.
Surveillance video from Thursday night's incident at Exo Cafe on Austin Street in Forest Hills shows the moment the windows shatter when a wave of snow and ice is suddenly thrown onto them.
See original story at NBC New York
A female customer seated by the window is knocked off her seat and tumbles over from the blast of the windows.
"Everybody jumped. The glass went all the way up to the bar," said restaurant manager Peter Kambitsis.
He said the driver of the plow truck didn't stop and that employees had to catch up to the driver when he finally stopped at a traffic light.
Kambitsis said the doors were broken from the incident and that he had to stay in the restaurant Thursday night to guard the business.
The customer who fell over from the blast went to the hospital to get checked out and appeared to be OK, said Kambitsis.
In a statement Friday, the Department of Sanitation said it conducted an investigation into the incident and is taking disciplinary action against the plow truck operators.
Last week, a snowplow in Brooklyn knocked over a pedestrian and broke the glass door of an auto dealership when it similarly sent up a wall of snow and slush. The Department of Sanitation said it was taking disciplinary action against the drivers in that incident.
The pedestrian said it was "very painful" getting hit in the face by ice.