A elderly woman possibly parking in a handicapped space crashed through the entrance of a Torrance gym Wednesday evening, injuring four people, including one man who was pinned against a vending machine.

Police and witnesses suspect the woman in her 70s hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. The crash occurred shortly before 5 p.m. at Planet Fitness at Hawthorne and Del Amo boulevards.

People in the gym said they heard what sounded like a loud explosion and saw glass and debris fly into the workout area. The car went through a wall and came to rest deep inside the gym next to a sign that read “hydrate.”

One person was on the hood the vehicle, police said.

“She got out of the car immediately,” said Katie Nguyen, who was working out at the time. “She was an elderly lady. She seemed pretty flustered, like she didn’t know what happened. She had pretty dark shades on, too, like optometrist’s glasses.”

Three people, some of whom were working out their abdominal muscles on the floor, were run over, witnesses said. One man, believed to be an employee who had just walked into the gym, was seriously hurt.

Three victims were taken to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. A fourth with the most serious injuries was taken to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Torrance police Lt. Chris Roosen said.

Witnesses said he suffered multiple compound fractures to his legs.

The driver was not hurt.

People working out said they heard screams and quickly hurried out, some trying to help the injured. Paramedics told them that although some of the injuries were serious, everyone would recover, Nguyen said.

Roosen said it was not immediately clear if the woman was parking in the handicapped space directly outside the gym’s front entrance. But she definitely drove through it into the building, he said.

By 5:45 p.m., a tow truck pulled the black sedan out of the gym.

Nguyen said that had the crash happened a few minutes later, a large number of people taking an abdominals class would have been in the car’s path.