By John McCallum
Managing Editor 

Medical emergency leads to car vs. building collision

 

Last updated 10/22/2020 at 11:39am



CHENEY – A medical emergency sent a driver off the road and crashing into a downtown building early Saturday morning, Oct. 10.

According to Cheney police Capt. Rick Beghtol, the male driver developed some sort of sudden back spasm that caused him to lose control of his vehicle, jump the curb and plow into the Clean-R-Up cleaning business at 211 1st Street around 7:17 a.m. The vehicle smashed through the front of the building into the office, coming to rest about three-quarters inside the structure.

“It doesn’t look like he made any effort to apply the brakes,” Beghtol said. “He just drover over the curb and into the wall.”

Clean-R-Up co-owner Star Seehawer said the front office was damaged, with furniture, computers and other office items destroyed.

“Everything that was in there was thrown around and smashed,” she said.

Both Beghtol and Seehawer said the building has been determined to be structurally sound. Seehawer added they had a contractor onsite effecting repairs, and it should be about three weeks before they can reopen as much as possible under current Covid-19 protocol restrictions.

Seehawer said damage to their portion was well over $20,000. The dollar amount of damage to the building was unknown at press time.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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