Insect in car causes accident that destroyed newsstand in Praia Grande

An insect inside the car was the trigger for a bizarre accident that destroyed a newsstand on Wednesday morning (5), in the Boqueirão neighborhood, in Praia Grande, on the south coast of São Paulo. The vehicle climbed the sidewalk and hit the establishment head-on. No one was injured.

The collision occurred around 7 am, on Avenida Presidente Castelo Branco, at number 1,168. According to the Military Police, the driver of a Fiat Palio lost control of the steering after her granddaughter, in the back seat, was startled when she noticed the insect inside the vehicle. The child’s reaction distracted the driver, who advanced on the sidewalk.

Monitoring cameras recorded the sequence. In the images, the car travels in the right lane when it leaves the lane and crashes directly into the structure of the bank, which was destroyed.

Insect inside the car caused an accident that destroyed a newsstand in Praia Grande

Camera recorded the moment when the vehicle invaded the sidewalk and hit the establishment

CLICK HEREhttps://t.co/F35vNP534y pic.twitter.com/DWVSVm4x2a

— A Tribuna Newspaper (@atribunasantos) August 5, 2026

No injuries and no police record

The occurrence was attended after the activation of the Military Police Operations Center (Copom). The corporation reported that there was only material damage and that the parties involved were guided on the spot. The Fire Department was also called, but did not need to provide assistance. According to the Public Security Secretariat, the case did not generate a record with the Civil Police.

The City Hall of Praia Grande informed, in a note, that the stall was closed at the time of the crash and that it implemented a temporary corridor with trestles to ensure the circulation of pedestrians until the sidewalk is cleared.

Insect in the car: what to do behind the wheel

Situations like this are more common than they seem and are in the category of distraction, one of the main risk factors in Brazilian traffic. The basic defensive driving guideline is not to try to scare the animal away: taking one hand off the wheel, or the eyes off the road for a moment, is what usually turns a scare into a collision.

The recommended procedure is to keep your hands on the wheel, signal, reduce speed gradually and stop in a safe place — shoulder, parking space or side road — before opening the windows and solving the problem with the car stopped. When there are passengers, especially children, it is worth instructing them in advance to warn without shouting or moving sharply. On fast traffic roads, the ideal is to go to the first exit or escape area instead of braking suddenly.