At least a dozen volunteers were so distressed they had to leave the scene and the Australian Electoral Commission has offered counseling, according to witnesses.
Victoria Police said the driver, an 89-year-old Croydon woman, was assessed by paramedics at the scene and was expected to undergo a license review.
Lionel, a volunteer handing out Liberal how-to-vote cards said the driver was distraught.
“It hit the wall, the whiplash and everything – the seat brackets all broke,” he said. “She’s obviously tried to hit the brake. It could have been a lot worse. There was about 12 people standing behind the car when it happened.”
Shattered glass from the car windscreen was still visible at the scene after emergency services left, with polling continuing afterwards.
A 39-year-old woman from Ringwood was taken to Royal Melbourne hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Ambulance Victoria. The woman in her 80s was taken to Maroondah Hospital and is believed to be in a stable condition.
Greg said there had been difficulties with the large number of cars trying to park near people lining up for pre-polling.
“People had been commenting ‘it’s lucky people aren’t crashing or getting hurt’, but no one saw something like that happening,” he said.
“It’s one of those freak accidents where the drivers just made that classic mistake of accelerator instead of the brake.”
Sukkar said he was “extremely proud” of the response by all bystanders who helped the trapped woman.
“Everyone pitched in to assist in what was a terrible incident and I am incredibly relieved that there were no fatalities,” he said.
“My thoughts are now with the injured woman and I hope she makes a full recovery.”
