By Jim Melwert, Jenn Bernstein

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — It was a wild scene near Pat’s King of Steaks in South Philly early Tuesday morning when an out-of-control car nearly hit a customer.

It was a little before 1 a.m. outside the landmark cheesesteak shop at the corner of Wharton Street and Passyunk Avenue.

Neville Williams, who is visiting from Baltimore, was sitting at a table outside the restaurant. He had just finished a cheesesteak and wanted some more. So, he got up, went to the window and heard screeching tires, then a crash and turned around to see a sedan that slammed into the rear of his SUV, right next to where he was sitting. The car hit his table and moved it nearly a foot and a half.

He said if he hadn’t gotten up to get more food, the car likely would have hit him.

“I just happened to get up 30 seconds before the incident. My back was to the street, so I wouldn’t have seen it coming. If I heard the wheels screeching, I probably would have stood up and stepped right into it.”

Or, he says, if he hadn’t gone back for more, he may have been sitting in his SUV when that car slammed into it. So, as he puts it, a cheesesteak saved his life.

Witnesses say they’d estimate the driver that caused all this was going about 45 miles per hour when they say he ran a stop sign, hit another car that was turning onto Passyunk Avenue and then slammed into the parked SUV.

Two passengers were in the car that allegedly ran the stop sign. One woman was taken to the hospital with back pains. Another passenger, police say, later ended up at the hospital.

Police are still looking for the driver. That man, they say, has a large gash on his forehead. Witnesses say they saw him go back in his car, grab a bottle of vodka and throw it away. They say he also threw something into the tall grass across the street from Pat’s.

Police are still investigating.