A Winnipeg father is relieved he was able to pull his son to safety after a truck careened into a convenience store at such a high speed, it melted the floor tiles. But he says his son, who has autism, has been badly traumatized.

The crash happened on Tuesday, at MD’s Convenience Store in the city's east end. Shawn Sutherland and his seven-year-old son were in the store, playing an arcade game near the front doors, while his older son was across the store getting a Slurpee.

As Sutherland and his younger boy finished the game and began walking away, a pickup truck suddenly crashed through the doors, and pinned the boy down.

Sutherland moved quickly and was able to pull his son out just in time.

"I had no other choice. Because if I didn't move him, he would have been dead," he told CTV Winnipeg.

Sutherland says the truck must have been travelling at a high speed when it crashed through the store.

“When I was reaching underneath the vehicle, the tires were still spinning at 70 kilometres an hour. It was going fast enough to melt the tiles inside the store,” he said.

The boy's only injury was a cut finger. But Sutherland says the boy is not doing well emotionally.

His son has autism and is non-verbal, and while he hasn't been able to speak to express how the crash affected him, Sutherland says it's clear he's been traumatized.

“He doesn’t want to leave my side. Every time I leave his side, he cries,” said Sutherland.

He also says his son refuses to go back to the store.

Meanwhile, Sutherland says he's been given no updates from police about the crash and whether any charges will be laid.

But he says there needs to be changes to business storefronts to prevent a similar incident.

“I think all businesses that have bay windows must put pillars in front. If they don’t, they’re going to end up with the same problem we just had,” he said.

With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Meghan Roberts