ORLANDO, Fla. — A woman dressed in a banana costume peeled away from traffic and stopped to call 911 after an SUV slammed into a Central Florida bar early Saturday.
Stephanie Oropeza and her fiancé, Dragan Nesic, were returning from a Halloween party at about 4 a.m. ET when they saw an SUV veer off the road and crash into the patio of the Moderne, an Orlando bar, WFTV reported.
The couple immediately pulled over to help.
“I’m actually going to school being a future nurse, so it was just instinct,” Oropeza told the television station. “I needed to at least call for help and make sure he was OK.”
The SUV struck a cement planter, the patio railing, several tables and approximately 20 seats, WFTV reported. There were no injuries, and there were no customers or bar employees on the patio when the vehicle crashed.
‘Banana hero’ goes viral after helping driver following crash into Orlando bar https://t.co/3qvk2WFY6A https://t.co/HCQkXInbBq
— WFTV Channel 9 (@WFTV) October 25, 2026
“My first reaction was looking at the time that this happened and being grateful that we didn’t have any staff, we didn’t have any guests out here at the time,” bar manager Brantley Newton told the television station.
Video shared by Moderne showed Oropeza, still wearing her banana costume, calling 911 for help.
Employees told WFTV that they want to treat Oropeza to dinner as a way to thank her for stopping. However, the bar joked that Oropeza had already “split” before considering its “appealing offer.”
The aspiring nurse -- now dubbed a “banana hero” -- said there was no question that she would stop to help.
“I feel like that’s the bare minimum you can do to be a decent human being these days,” Oropeza told the television station.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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