- December 13, 2025
UPDATED 4:32 p.m.
Ten people were injuried when a 76-year-old driver plowed into Publix Supermarket at 4950 Belle Terre Parkway in Palm Coast at 1:24 p.m. Saturday, April 14.
Thelma Wagenhoffer, 76, of the L-section, was identified as the driver of the Toyota Camry. One witness estimated that Wagenhoffer was traveling about 50 mph when she blew through the stop sign right in front of the exit of the store. The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating why she did not stop.
Public Information Officer Debra Johnson, of the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, said Wagenhoffer was not injured in the crash.
One couple, who are not yet identified, had just finished checking out at the register — they had their grocery bags in hand — when the car entered the store. It crashed into a wall near the book area and was deflected slightly before it struck the husband and dragged him about 15 feet before pinning two young women against the chips aisle.
Mark Tsistinas, owner of nearby restaurant Scoops, was in the store buying shrimp when the incident occurred. He heard a "big kaboom" and watched the car hit a shopping cart on which a mother had just placed her infant in a baby carrier. The cart was pushed forward, but the baby carrier did not fall off the car, Tsistinas said.
Linda Goldstein was at the pharmacy when it happened.
"I was about to take my blood pressure," she said. "Then I heard a loud crash, like a bomb. I turned my head and here comes the car flying in, glass everywhere."
The car's tires were still spinning and squealing on the floor of the store. Tsistinas then saw another man reach in and turn off the keys to the ignition, stopping the car.
Tsistinas rushed to the pharmacy and grabbed as much gauze and as many gloves as he could and threw the items to other customers so they could help stop the bleeding of several other shoppers.
"One lady was bleeding from the back of the head," Tsistinas said. "One guy got hit and landed on a flower bed."
Goldstein, who works at a Publix in St. Johns County, then saw Dan Schill, the meat manager, rush to action.
"He came over with no fear," she said. He then led a group of about 15 people lift the car while others pulled the man from underneath the car.
"A crane couldn't have lifted that car any quicker," said Linda's husband, Keith Goldstein. "Usually in that kind of situation, you see people running in the opposite direction. These people ran to help."
Tsistinas came to the aid of the wife of the man who had been pinned underneath the car. He picked up her cell phone and dialed the first number in her phone. He confirmed with the man on the other end of the phone that it was the woman's son.
"Your mom is coherent," he told the man on the phone. "Your dad isn't doing too good. You need to get here as soon as possible."
The man from under the car was eventually taken away in a helicopter for treatment. He was the only one with injuries that could be life-threatening, according to Palm Coast Fire Chief Mike Beadle.
The incident, Tsistinas said, "was the most horrific thing I've ever seen." At first, he felt full of adrenaline and things were moving in "slow motion," he said. Then, he thought about his son, who had bought bread earlier in the day, and when he thought of what might have been, Tsistinas "started bawling," he said.
A public relations official with Publix told Johnson that the store will reopen today.
Beadle added that the Sheriff's Office and fire department responded within minutes of the incident. "It was almost instantaneous," he said.
St. Johns County Fire Rescue and Volusia County EVAC also assisted by responding to other calls in Flagler County while four engines and a ladder were at the Publix store.
Tsistinas said that an employee at the cash register was saved when the wall deflected the car. "I had to give her a hug," he said. "I see her all the time."
The cashier could be seen later with a broom in her hand, sweeping away the glass at the entrance, which was blocked off with caution tape and law enforcement vehicles.
In one of those vehicles sat Wagenhoffer. It was about 3 p.m. She was sitting in the back seat and facing the store, her back to the mostly empty parking lot. Her head was slumped against the headrest of the passenger seat. She was driven home shortly afterward.
