Yesterday morning a loaded gravel trailer literally drove through a long time meeting spot for adults. I used to frequent Junior's Lounge for about 10 years pre covid and met my daughter there where we'd spend out time together. We were forced to break the routine during the covid restrictions and never picked it up again when they were rescinded.
A little after 10am the truck was traveling on a busy for our area secondary road and drove off the road and into the building. Seconds before he had struck another vehicle and the owner of the business, who had been there counting the previous night's receipts, went out the back to investigate the noise. That saved his life! There were two tenants in the upstairs apartment, one was in the small section of the building that wasn't damaged and the other was in bed directly above where the truck hit. The floor went out from under her and she fell, bed and all, into the load of gravel. She was found still in bed unharmed. Her cat was sitting in a chair next to her grooming himself when she was rescued.
There seems to have been some kind of medical issue with the 33 year old driver as he had struck 10 other vehicles on the road in the two miles previous to hitting the building. He was the only casualty of the incident and it is speculated that the accident may have been the result of death in the seat. Due to the severity of the damage to the truck cab he was assumed deceased and recovery couldn't be made with the building so unstable. They did recover him several hours later.
It was an absolute miracle that no one was injured other than the driver, if this had happened an hour later there would have been a number of patrons and staff in the building. They did a pretty good lunch business. The building has been reduced to a pile of toothpick looking lumber and is a total loss. It's unknown at this point whether they will be able to rebuild. Everyone is counting their blessings that the outcome wasn't much more disastrous. Below is a news article and NYC TV news report of the incident.
https://midhudsonnews.com/2022/06/21/driver-of-truck-that-died-in-mondays-horrific-crash-identified/
A little after 10am the truck was traveling on a busy for our area secondary road and drove off the road and into the building. Seconds before he had struck another vehicle and the owner of the business, who had been there counting the previous night's receipts, went out the back to investigate the noise. That saved his life! There were two tenants in the upstairs apartment, one was in the small section of the building that wasn't damaged and the other was in bed directly above where the truck hit. The floor went out from under her and she fell, bed and all, into the load of gravel. She was found still in bed unharmed. Her cat was sitting in a chair next to her grooming himself when she was rescued.
There seems to have been some kind of medical issue with the 33 year old driver as he had struck 10 other vehicles on the road in the two miles previous to hitting the building. He was the only casualty of the incident and it is speculated that the accident may have been the result of death in the seat. Due to the severity of the damage to the truck cab he was assumed deceased and recovery couldn't be made with the building so unstable. They did recover him several hours later.
It was an absolute miracle that no one was injured other than the driver, if this had happened an hour later there would have been a number of patrons and staff in the building. They did a pretty good lunch business. The building has been reduced to a pile of toothpick looking lumber and is a total loss. It's unknown at this point whether they will be able to rebuild. Everyone is counting their blessings that the outcome wasn't much more disastrous. Below is a news article and NYC TV news report of the incident.
https://midhudsonnews.com/2022/06/21/driver-of-truck-that-died-in-mondays-horrific-crash-identified/
WOW!
