Video shows

New video shows the dramatic moment a car went careening out of control through the Market Basket parking lot in Manchester, New Hampshire, flipping and striking several vehicles before coming to a stop on its side. 

“Basically, the car was like driving by itself, it happened so quick,” said Fiordaliz Lopez. 

She was heading to work at a dental office next to the supermarket around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday when she says the electric Toyota suddenly accelerated on its own and the brakes weren’t working. 

Driver said the car would not brake

“I was screaming like the car cannot brake, the car cannot brake, and I don’t know when I’m going to end,” Lopez said. 

With smoke billowing from the car, she believes the ending was nothing short of a miracle. Vehicles, but not pedestrians, were struck in the busy supermarket parking lot, and she was still alive. 

“My car flipped over and thank God nothing happened to me because I was thinking that was the last day of my life,” Lopez said. “That’s what I was thinking when the car was out of control that I’m going to die.” 

She says the seatbelt saved her life as she was left dangling inside the overturned car with onlookers rushing to help her amid the struggle to free herself.

“I put my feet on the door of the driver’s side, pushed myself up and they finished taking me out,” Lopez said. 

“That was God who helped me out”

There is bruising on her arm and a painful burn on her neck as she hung from the seatbelt before being lifted out through the broken glass window. The possible mechanical failure is being investigated as Lopez says there is no way she inadvertently hit the gas. 

She believes a higher power helped that day. “That was God who helped me out, because there’s no way I could have gotten myself out of that car,” Lopez said. 

She says the memory of the close call and how tragedy was averted will stay with her for some time.