Top Nails owner Ngoc Nguyen was working inside her Casper nail salon Thursday afternoon when an SUV suddenly crashed through the front of the business.
The gray SUV punched nose-first through the glass storefront beneath the Top Nails sign at the Newport Road shopping center, buckling window framing and leaving a gaping section of the salon’s facade damaged.
Police and other emergency responders converged on the storefront, and by 4:14 p.m. Thursday afternoon the vehicle was being pulled from the building and loaded onto a flatbed tow truck.
Nguyen was still shaken when Cowboy State Daily reached her shortly after the crash and didn't have many words to describe watching a vehicle come into her business.
“It was so scary,” she said.
Despite the dramatic damage, Nguyen said nobody inside Top Nails was hurt.
The driver, an older woman whom Nguyen said appeared to be using oxygen, also appeared to be OK immediately afterward.
“She was out of the car and walking around,” Nguyen said.
What caused the incident remained unclear Thursday afternoon.
Crash Report
The report came over Natrona County emergency radio traffic at 3:35 p.m.
Emergency crews were dispatched to 395 Newport Road for what was initially described as an injury accident.
“This is going to be for a vehicle that drove into the building,” a dispatcher announced, identifying the driver as a woman.
The initial dispatch said the location was Firehouse Pizza, which is in the same Newport Road commercial development.
The aftermath was hard to miss.
A photograph shows the gray SUV lodged against the salon, its front end extending through what had been the glass storefront.
Several large window panels and their frames appear pushed and twisted inward around the vehicle. Through the opening, the interior of the salon is visible behind responders gathered at the entrance.
Casper police officers and emergency workers stood outside as the vehicle was removed. A flatbed tow truck backed nearly to the storefront, its bed lowered toward the SUV to pull it from the damaged building.
Nguyen said the crash damaged the front face of her business, but the frightening scene left her grateful nobody inside was injured.
Not Uncommon
The Storefront Safety Council, an organization that studies vehicle-into-building crashes, estimates these types of crashes happen more than 100 times every day nationwide.
The organization says the crashes injure as many as 16,000 people and kill about 2,600 annually.
There is no single government database devoted to vehicles crashing into storefronts, and many incidents occur on private property.
The Storefront Safety Council instead compiles incidents using sources, including police and fire reports, court documents, news reports and other records.
Its data also show there isn't one explanation for why vehicles end up inside buildings.
Operator error, drivers mistakenly hitting the accelerator instead of the brake, impairment, other traffic crashes and medical emergencies are among causes listed.
Wyoming Crashes
Wyoming has seen several examples of drivers unexpectedly winding up inside businesses.
In December 2025, an 18-year-old driver crashed through the front of Ichiban Steakhouse in Riverton.
Riverton police said at the time that the driver apparently confused the accelerator and brake pedals. The crash damaged the restaurant and forced it to temporarily close, but nobody was injured.
In February, another vehicle crashed into Rivercity Rendezvous in Riverton.
Police said the 17-year-old driver in that crash was experiencing a medical emergency. The teenager and a passenger were taken to the hospital, and police said they saw no indication the driver had been intoxicated.
On Sept. 14, a pickup crashed through Wonderful Inn, a Chinese restaurant in Evanston, after authorities said its driver suffered a medical emergency.
That crash also looked dramatic, but timing helped prevent a potentially much worse outcome.
Nobody was inside Wonderful Inn when the pickup crashed into the restaurant, and the impact was largely confined to a storage area. The driver was conscious and communicating with first responders before being taken to a hospital.
The restaurant was able to remain open.
Thursday's Casper crash had another fortunate ending.
This time, people actually were inside the business when the SUV came through the front.
Nguyen was among them — but despite the broken glass, nobody inside was hurt.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
