Workers prepare to replace plate glass panels on the showroom floor of Sunbelt Motors on Highway 39 North.

    Evidence of a mother’s desperate attempt to save her children from harm were spread all over a car lot — and could be seen on her as well in the form of bruises, cuts and scrapes.

    Tuesday night, a vehicle with three children inside crashed through a plate glass showroom floor window damaging four new cars and totaling the vehicle the children were in.

    Officials with the Meridian Police Department are investigating the cause of the accident that occurred at about 10:30 p.m. at Sunbelt Motors Mazda/BMW dealership located at 2000 Highway 39 North.    

    The mother of the children was the only one hurt in the incident.

    “She had pulled up to the convenience store across Old Marion Road and got out to run inside. She had left her three young children inside the car and somehow the car was shifted into neutral,” said Mike Vick, public information officer for the MPD.

    Officials said the car rolled out of the parking lot, across Old Marion Road, clipped a new car in the lot, and crashed into the showroom floor where it damaged three other BMW vehicles parked inside.

    The car, a Nissan Altima, traveled about 100 yards, weaving in between two rows of new cars parked on the outside lot and squeezed between two barriers before crashing into the glass windows and crashing into those vehicles on the showroom floor. One of those vehicles, a BMW 500 series sedan, was worth $55,700 according to the sticker. The front and rear bumpers sustained moderate damage and the back glass was knocked out.

    Vick said one of the new cars received damage from falling glass while the other two were struck by the vehicle. Glass was strewn across the entire length of the showroom floor, some of which broke another smaller window on the opposite side of the showroom.

    Vick said the car with the children inside appeared to be a total loss but the children were unhurt. But that was not the case with the mother.

    “She ran out of the store when she saw the car rolling away and tried to jump in and stop it,” Vick said. “That is when she sustained her injuries as she got knocked down.”

    The drivers side door of the car was torn off in the incident after it hit a pole in front of the showroom. The rear of the Altima suffered extensive damage and the left side of the vehicle was pressed in as it squeezed between the barriers.

    Workers Wednesday morning were on the property cleaning up the glass and installing new glass that had been knocked out.