PARIS – A young worker narrowly escaped injury when a pickup truck plowed through Yianni’s House of Pizza on Main Street Saturday afternoon taking out the restroom that she had just exited.

Wayne Whitney, 55, of North Haverhill, N.H., was arrested around 4 p.m. and charged with operating a motor vehicle after suspension of license after he decided to turn his truck around in the parking lot and got his foot stuck on the accelerator.

Police estimate there was about $25,000 in damage including $8,000 to the 2004 Dodge pickup truck.

“Given a half hour or so that place would have been packed,” said investigating Police officer Nate Bowie of the longtime popular downtown business. “They were making pizza dough out back in preparation for a busy Saturday night.”

Bowie said Whitney was in the passenger seat and decided to straddle his leg over the middle seat to back the truck up to face in the opposite direction.

“He said he was very good at backing up his truck. He had his foot straddled over the middle seat and the accelerator got stuck under the floor mat. He backed up right through the building,” said Bowie.

Several employees were in the building at the time including Whitney’s girlfriend, Charito Celis, 42, of Paris, who picking up sandwiches for the pair. Prior to the accident, Bowie said Celis was driving the full-size pickup truck for his boyfriend because his licensee was suspended in New Hampshire after an unrelated arrest for driving under the influence.

Alcohol was not a factor in this accident, Bowie said.

“She had pulled into parking space facing south. He decided he would back it up for her and face north,” Bowie said.

The truck went through the wall carrying a picnic table into the restroom, which is located to the right of the customer counter.

Yianni’s is owned by Ioannis Papanikolaou of Paris who also operates another pizza house in Jay. His son was in the Paris pizza business when the accident occurred.

The business remained closed while Papanikolaou’s insurance company investigates on Monday.