McDonald’s golden arches crash onto couple

A GIANT set of golden arches outside a McDonald’s in eastern Arizona toppled in high winds, crushing a couple’s Chevy Trailblazer as they sat inside and leaving them with multiple injuries.

Retirees Russell and Carolyn Janke had stopped at the fast food restaurant on the Navajo Nation reservation in Window Rock on their way back to Naperville in suburban Chicago.

Navajo acting police chief Steven Nelson said winds hit 96km, causing the sign to be blown down from atop a pole across the street from the restaurant. Carolyn Janke, 68, was trapped inside the SUV and had to be cut out of the vehicle.

The couple was taken to the Fort Defiance Indian Health Service. Carolyn was later transported to St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Centre in Phoenix where she remained in intensive care. She has a fractured spinal column and a fractured sternum, her daughter-in-law Ann Janke said. Her husband, 70, a retired engineer, was hit in the head and “has over 70 stitches,” she said.

Roy Talker, owner of the Window Rock franchise, said: “We are genuinely concerned about the recovery of those involved. We are fully co-operating with the authorities.”