When you sit down to eat at a restaurant, you don’t think about almost getting Final Destination’d, but it can happen. Over the weekend, an SUV crashed through a window while influencers were filming a food video and the camera captured the impact.
It all went down at CuVees Culinary Creations in Houston, Texas on Sunday, Aug. 17., when social media influencers Patrick Blackwood and Nina Unrated were tucking into a spread including a mac and cheese tasting flight and some great-looking chicken wings. With the camera set up facing the opposite side of the booth, everything seemed normal until the metal window frame starts to move.
An SUV had struck the restaurant right where the table was, shoving it out of the way and knocking plates off the wood as panes of glass shatter from the force of the crash. While the center-of-impact mercifully appears to be just far enough away from the bench the influencers are sitting on as to mitigate severity, the impact’s bend of the window frame moves the bench by several inches, all while covering the duo in glass.
Although both influencers were treated for lacerations, thankfully, neither was seriously injured. However, an experience like this still rattles the nerves. As Nina wrote in the description of the video clip:
This whole ordeal has us shook, but it’s a massive wake up call. Tomorrow is not promised, guys do what you wanna do today, live happy right now, let go of all that baggage, and forgive everybody. You don’t have time for that nonsense. Life has given us a second chance, and now we get to be great. We’re aiming to be beyond great, straight up amazing, and we’re constantly working on ourselves daily to become better people and crush our goals. We wish you all the best in life stay safe out there because life is so unexpected. That SUV came out of nowhere, and there was no way we could’ve seen it coming. All we were doing was enjoying a meal at a restaurant.
Indeed, worrying about being hit by a car while inside a restaurant enjoying a meal is something most people don’t do, so it’s entirely understandable that the crash was unexpected. Details on the outcome of the collision are unclear, but we’ve reached out to the Houston Police Department for more information on the collision and will update you should further information arise.
While shocking, a vehicle colliding with a commercial building isn’t an unusual story. In 2022, Lloyds of London crunched the data collected by the Storefront Safety Council and found that on average, storefront crashes in America happen 100 times per day, with the leading cause being operator error, followed closely by pedal misapplication.
As such, it shouldn’t be surprising that this isn’t the first time a vehicle has crashed through a restaurant window while people were filming content. In 2023, photographer November Romeo was filming a podcast in a cafe with photographer influencer Alexsey Reyes when the right rear quarter panel of a GMT900 Chevrolet SUV and the front of a Ford Escape make contact, sending the Chevrolet into a spin that ends with the full-size SUV going through a small set of bollards and into the window of the cafe. Mercifully, both photographers appear to walk away, but it’s still quite the sight.
Even though Patrick and Nina didn’t suffer serious injuries, they still didn’t walk away completely unharmed, and keeping people inside buildings safe from collisions is an area that generally needs improvement. Impact-resistant bollards and other obstacles to reduce vehicle intrusion can help, as can parking lot design for safety, such as removing perpendicular parking spots from storefronts. In any case, best wishes to Nina and Patrick on a speedy recovery.
Top graphic image: YouTube/Unrated EX Files
This is a very American thing. It does not have to be that way if we don’t want it to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_0DgnJ1uQ
Man… a lot of cranky people here today.
It’s really simple. If they bug you, don’t click on their stuff. They don’t get any money, and you don’t have to watch their content.
So what would you prefer people do instead? Go outside? Pet their cat? Hug their loved ones? Read books? Hear birds singing? Go experience the beauty of nature? Contemplate their lives in melancholic solitude? Yeah right.
All that doesn’t sound so bad.
Not sure you’ve noticed, but there’s tons and tons of content and content creators meeting varying levels of influencers. If one content creator / influencer bothers you, find another.
Also I think a lot of people would do well for putting down the phone and reading a book or two.
I’m very well aware – I follow a great many of the ones who are making good content. My point is that people who hate-watch stuff or are obsessed with things they don’t like need to go touch grass.
Agreed with H T, pedal misapplication IS a form of operator error.
My 89-year-old mother applied pressure to the wrong pedal and rear-ended someone in stop-and-go traffic 200′ from her driveway. The other car didn’t show any damage, but her old Honda had a folded-up hood and a crushed radiator. The insurance company totaled her car, the state suspended her license and my brother and I are moving her off a 20-acre farm and into assisted living. It’s a lot of change for the poor dear, but society as a whole is safer without her behind the wheel of a car. And she will be better off with the support she will get in that community. My brother and I have been alternating weeks caring for her since the crash, but it just isn’t sustainable. I live 700 miles away and have put a year’s worth of miles on my car in three months.
Few yrs back, my neighbor’s Mom (90ish) showed up to her beauty salon with two blown out tires. She was unaware of this and when it happened. Her last time driving. His father had to total his car to finally stop driving. None of his kids would ride with him previously he was so scary. Many do not give up driving without a huge battle.
My grandfather gave up driving around that age when he came home and a large carved granite stone, like from a wall, slid out from underneath the front crossmember of his Caprice and he had no idea where it came from. I had heard him coming down the street and saw sparks flying out from under the car. Near the end, he complained that he wished he kept driving because he had no idea he’d live so long (he made it to 103 and he was doing really well until 102). I think he was concerned that he was a burden without the license, though I know he also missed driving. At least he got to enjoy the ride-on mower.
This is unfortunately rather common here in our neck of the woods. One recently, the driver managed to veer off the main road into the front of small walk in restaurant, somehow running in between the 4’h bollards. The bollards were centered on the parking spaces to prevent people from hitting the building when parking. Oops. Guess they need to double up on them.
I have a friend, ex-Marine, who you always leave him the seat facing the front door.
24.4k subscribers. Yes, plenty of influence…
I think I would spend the rest of my life NEVER sitting near a window in a business again. I wouldn’t even call it a phobia at that point since you can prove it happened once.
My old boss refused to go to the dentist on a Friday the 13th. He swore up and down he wasn’t superstitious, but he said if he went and something bad happened, that would make him superstitious. So he was just stitious, I guess.
I don’t want anyone hurt. But is there some way that we can make this happen every time an ‘influencer’ sets up a camera somewhere? Maybe that’s how we can put an end to it.
(Joking, kinda)
I don’t want these poor influencers “hurt”. Not seriously…. Nothing permanent…. Maybe a little shaken up? Would a couple of bruises be that bad??? What if their cameras were smashed beyond repair? That sounds good, smash their cameras, yeah! And if there’s a God, and there isn’t, they’d get real jobs and stop polluting the world with their crap.
…with the leading cause being operator error, followed closely by pedal misapplication.
Wha?
Feet have a mind of their own, and can be charged of crimes independently of their attached humans in most states.
Car and Driver would joke that Csaba Csere’s feet were not attached to brain (during top speed runs)
I guess this means that when I stall my car, it’s not my fault haha
They are both very lucky to not have any serious injuries.
I wonder what the backstory is regarding why the SUV crashed into the building.
If every ‘Old Driver Through Storefront’ incident ended with one less influencer, we could make this nation and the world a better place.
That’s not very kind… it could be argued that anyone who reviews anything on an online media source is an influencer (including our favorite writers here at the Autopian). Wishing harm on anyone is not cool.
That’s not what I meant by influencer.
I did not wish harm on anyone. I was merely pondering the glorious possibilities.
I’m about to get bashed for my similar comment.
3,2,1…..
Maybe it’s just a close call that causes them to reevaluate their lifestyles and leave social media.
I don’t need them to die, I just want them to go away.
Until today I didn’t know they existed. I can’t say that I know of any “influencer”. Is that actress Paltrow considered an influencer? I know of her acting work and that she has a bunch of interesting? things she sells but seems like just a cook who might be an interesting hang. Yeah, I have a small fascination the oddities of humanity.
They’re not high enough profile for me to know about them before this video.
I tend to learn about influencers only when the inevitably get busted for running crypto scam.
I will have forgotten about them in less than an hour. My only takeaway from this is that some people probably shouldn’t have a drivers license. Also the food looked okay? I won’t be paying for any of that food in a restaurant but I might be inspired to make something a bit different than casserole. Nah, casserole is the perfect food.
The thought that anyone who visits this site would be taking life advice from the car-hoarding, taillight-fetishizing collection of lovable kooks that run this place is simultaneously terrifying and inspiring.
You have to use the mob-boss strategy and always sit at the table in the corner, so you can keep an eye out for that brodozer with a big Warn in front.
With an aging population and what appears to be declining intelligence along with the disconnected nature of vehicles, including novel (stupid) shifter designs with limited feedback, more places might need to think about installing serious bollards, like the kind that can be deployed to stop a speeding box truck in secure facilities, though these can be installed fully deployed. Slightly different situation in that the offenders weren’t moron patrons, just plain morons, but there was a well-regarded Asian restaurant (Chines, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese) not far from me that closed down. It sat above the cross of a T intersection (and had some fair setback from the road) and had three cars drive into it, causing significant damage each time, though I don’t think anyone was ever seriously injured. They’ve unfortunately closed and I’m sure that helped their decision.
Growing up I had a neighbor whose house was at the cross of a T intersection and that house got hit by cars three times before I finished elementary school.
“Life has given us a second chance, and now we get to be great. We’re aiming to be beyond great, straight up amazing, and we’re constantly working on ourselves daily to become better people and crush our goals”
Sadly, those goals are probably going to be more “post more videos of food” than “feed starving children”.
When I watched the crash video there was a ‘watch this next’ box thing promoting a prank video from these two morons.
I did not like or subscribe.
I just had a car crash into a store last week! Older lady pressed the gas assuming it was the brakes and went right through a big glass panel. Just that, and some shelving, I think. Missed everything structural, and alive, thankfully.
That meal looked really good. I wouldn’t have even added salt and pepper let alone fresh-ground broken glass.
Well… it was in Houston, home to half the country’s worst drivers.
Two very lucky people. Too bad about his pants.
His knees are more durable 😉
Staged
Fake News
K
I’m just confused as to why anyone wants to watch a video of two people eating. What a strange world we live in.
I’m happy they didn’t suffer any serious injuries, though.
I mean sometimes I’ll wash a video of someone pressure washing an area rug. And admittedly, I once enjoyed watching the Food Network.
It’s weird but you’re right, it’s a strange world.
Oh but they’re beautiful people, so they must be paid attention to.
At least they’re doing something I can’t because of my location relative to the restaurant.
What I can’t get is people watching other people play video games. If you have the ability to watch the video, you could probably use that same hardware to play a game.
A lot of people watch game streams just to get an idea of the game, to see if they want to buy it themselves. A sort of passive demo. For me, the streamers usually talk too much, which is irritating.
The amount of gameplay content indicates that your case is not typical consumption.
Maybe, I don’t know. I can’t stand the idea of watching them, same as I never look at “influencers” for any advice about anything. Maybe I’m old, but the very word “influencer” makes me not want anything to do with them. I find them both “sus” and “cringe”. Skibidi.
That’s definitely not true. You can watch someone play a game on YouTube on a $200 smart TV. A computer that could run that game at the same settings is probably 10x as expensive.
I watch people play video games a lot, and it’s mostly because I don’t have the energy to put in to actually playing, especially the failing and retrying certain parts over and over that I’d end up having to do. I also don’t want to spend the money all those games would cost.
It doesn’t make any more or less sense than watching people play sports. For what it’s worth I don’t watch Let’s Play videos, but I can see the appeal. I’ve always been hopeless at Metal Gear games since the 8-bit NES one, but I like the story so I’ve always enjoyed watching friends play them.
Sports may require equipment, physical conditioning or a group of other players. You may even need the weather to cooperate.
Playing a video game can happen in the exact same space under the exact same conditions as watching the video – often with the same equipment being used to watch the video.
I’ve had this happen to me twice, though I wasn’t as close to the impact point as these two. First time, I heard a tire screech followed by a bang only to look up and see the drink’s counter sliding across the floor. I and one of the staff ran outside to help the elderly driver who hit the accelerator instead of the brake. Second time, I’m sitting waiting for my food, hear a engine roar and see a car pop the curb and hit a column just outside the door I’m facing. Another elderly driver hitting the wrong pedal. Burger joints both times, oddly enough.
They were obviously seated at the drive-through window.
Would you like shards with that?
Possibly a couple sharts as well.
Dang it…take my like.
You……..rascal!!! Take your star and go…………..
Do we have worldwide statistics on this, is the USA an outlier in restaurant-based-car-crashes?
I imagine we’re an outlier based on our uniquely high population of complete imbeciles.
If the data exists, can we map it to show if it’s safest to eat at Waffle House, IHOP, Bob Evans, or Cracker Barrel?
I’ve never felt safer than I have in a Waffle House. You know every single person behind the counter is willing and able to beat the complete shit out of anyone who walks through the door if need be.
I love a good waffle house in the middle of nowhere in the deep south.
The other half wonders what’s wrong with me.
I feel like it’s directly proportional to how car-based your infrastructure is.
Buying automatic transmissions by default and being heavily incentivized on both the manufacturer and owner side into classes of vehicle that are legally required to have curb-hopping approach angles can’t help.
Ha, this is probably an underrated issue, especially now that the elderly have ditched their LeSabres for RAV4s.
Our driving tests are also significantly easier than most others.
Part if it is that WE DRIVE EVERYWHERE, whereas in other parts of the world they have these things called trains.
And walkable cities and non-atrophied legs to walk around with.
We’re fat and we all have cars, so probably.
“Hi, I’m Guy Fieri, and we’re rollin’ out, looking for America’s greatest Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives! This week we’re ramming into CuVees Culinary Creations in Houston, Texas!”
They drove into the diners who had to dive out of the way.
“We’re jamming out to CCR while we jam in to CCC!”
Whilst I’m glad no one was hurt, I hope those two were influenced to stay away from the windows during their future filmed meals.
I bet their visit was comped.
They were actually planning to Dine n’ Dash, but there was a typo in the memo.
I “c” what you “r” hinting to there!
How it feels to chew
5 GumCuVees Culinary Creations.Darn it, that’s going to be an early COTD contender. LOL
I don’t get it. What’s 5 gum?
5 gum was a chewing gum brand in the early 2000s (i think?) that had commercials showing how EXTREME and COOL it felt to chew their EXTREMELY COOL GUM.
An ad campaign that became a meme