A car drove off a New Jersey highway and crashed into a Wendy's, narrowly missing a family eating outside, police say

• Two cars crashed into a Wendy's drive-thru in New Jersey, police reported on Monday.
• A Toyota left the roadway, hit a ridge, and struck an Audi, pushing both cars into the Wendy's, police said.
• The driver was hospitalized, as well as a child in the Audi, police said.

Two cars smashed into a Wendy's drive-thru restaurant in New Jersey, narrowly missing a family eating outside, after one of them drove off the highway, the South Brunswick police department reported on Monday.

A Toyota was heading south on Route 130 when it drove off the road, across the grass, hit a ridge, and launched into the air, police said in a statement.

The car flew through the parking lot and struck an Audi waiting in the drive-thru line, police said.

The collision pushed both vehicles into the Wendy's restaurant, smashing the windows and damaging the building structure, the police department said.

A family eating on a table outside Wendy's narrowly avoided being hit, according to the police.

The Toyota driver and a child in the Audi were taken to hospital, police said.

The restaurant is now closed for examination, police added.

"This is nothing short of a miracle that no one was seriously injured or killed in this crash," South Brunswick police chief Raymond Hayducka said in the police statement. "To think it was the middle of the day, people were eating both inside and outside and none of them were injured."

The police department on Monday tweeted a video of firefighters cutting the driver out of the Toyota.

-So Brunswick PD (@SoBrunswickPD) August 16, 2021

The Toyota driver may have suffered a medical episode prior to the crash, according to the police.