LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Nearly two weeks ago, a vehicle hit two pedestrians, and plowed into a local tattoo shop, Be True Tattoo. Now, the passenger who was in the vehicle at the time of the crash, Don Mitchell, is speaking out.

This comes after Lafayette police said the driver of the vehicle was traveling northbound on Whittington Drive when it failed to stop at the stop sign on Johnston Street.

The driver of the vehicle struck a pedestrian on an electric scooter, then crossed all four lanes of Johnston Street and went off the roadway, crashing into the right side of Be True Tattoo and hitting a worker inside.

Both people were transported to a local hospital as a result of the injuries. The driver of the vehicle and Mitchell were also hospitalized, according to Lafayette Police.

Mitchell tells News 10 it was a very scary experience.

“He swerved and hit the tattoo place,” said Mitchell. “I thought that was going to be it.”

Mitchell says he and the driver were on their way to a spoken word poetry workshop in Lafayette. As they approached the stop sign at Johnston Street and Whittington Drive, he recalls the driver saying the heat was too much to take.

“When I looked over, he had both hands on the steering wheel,” said Mitchell. “Then he just leaned forward, like he just fell asleep behind the wheel.”

Mitchell says everything happened so fast, and he’s still unclear how it all unfolded. His first instinct, he recalls, was to check himself for injuries right after the crash.

“My first thing was to get out of the car and walk around and I see if I had anything broken, or broken legs when I fell out,” said Mitchell. “And I still don’t know what happened.”

Mitchell says he sends his prayers to everyone injured in the crash and is thankful no lives were lost.

“It was hard to watch,” he said. “But I just thank God that nobody died, I just thank God that we’re all still here.”

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