PARIS – An 82-year-old Norway woman was injured Monday morning when her vehicle crashed into a storefront after backing through the traffic circle in Market Square, Paris police officer Christina Sugars said.

Witnesses said Janice Conway of Main Street backed her 2001 Subaru Legacy out of a parking space outside the Community Concepts building. The vehicle went through the busy intersection, knocked down a signpost in a median, and struck a vacant storefront at 11 Market Square.

“She went backwards all the way,” said Dawn Monroe, who was at Community Concepts when Conway left.

Darlene Thompson, who was driving on Main Street with her 3-year-old son, Luke, said the vehicle nearly hit her as it pulled out.

“She darted right out in front of me,” Thompson said. “It was way too close.”

Witnesses said the vehicle steered into the Market Square intersection at a high speed and went airborne after hitting the median.

Deborah Labrecque, who was in the intersection preparing to turn left onto Main Street, said she put her vehicle into reverse to avoid a collision with Conway.

“I could see her face,” Labrecque said. “Her eyes were closed and her head was bobbing.”

Susan Gilpatric, who was also stopped at the intersection, said Conway’s vehicle teetered when it hit the curb on the far side of the intersection and would have rolled over if it had not hit the building.

Labrecque said Conway narrowly missed two parked cars outside Tangles hair salon, which is in the building.

The vehicle smashed a window in the vacant storefront next to Tangles and tore away a section of wall. Aside from a damaged flower box, Tangles escaped damage.

Ernest Tripp, a passenger in a pickup truck driven by Michael Kennedy, was also on Main Street when the accident occurred.

“It looked like she was having a seizure,” Tripp said.

Police and fire personnel from Norway and Paris, as well as PACE Ambulance, responded to the scene. The witnesses to the accident remained at the scene after the crash while Conway was extricated.

“We just want to make sure she’s OK,” Gilpatric said.

Gilpatric called Tripp “the hero of the day” for going to help Conway after the accident.

Tripp said turned the ignition key off and kept Conway from moving her neck until paramedics arrived.

“My main concern was her neck because I’ve been through that,” said Tripp, who said suffered back injuries in a car accident in 1999. Tripp said he has trained with the Poland Fire Department.

Thompson said Conway was conscious after the accident and gave a thumbs-up signal.

Tripp said Conway expressed concern about her pocketbook, which he gave to Sugars for safekeeping.

Firefighters extricated Conway from the vehicle with hydraulic tools. She appeared to have injuries to the back of her head and her foot, which Sugars said were not life-threatening.

The building at 11 Market Square, which contains both business space and apartments, is owned by Mary E. Cullinan of Norway. Sugars said initial repairs on the storefront were already under way, and power to the storefront was being shut down.

Witnesses expressed amazement that the incident did not cause more damage in the intersection.

“There was hardly any traffic,” Labrecque said.

“We thought she was going to hit somebody,” Tripp said. “I don’t know how she missed all those cars.”

Conway was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital, where information on her condition was not available.