Officials from the Petal Children’s Task Force expect operations to proceed as normal after a minivan crashed through the front of the organization’s building on South George Street in Petal.
The incident occurred shortly after 10 a.m. Feb. 19, when an elderly woman ran the vehicle through the front door and into the back storage area of the building.
“She went to put on the brake, and her foot slipped off of the brake and she hit the accelerator,” Petal Police Department Chief Matthew Hiatt said. “She was transported to a local hospital complaining of pain, but no apparent significant injury. Nobody inside the building was hurt, thankfully.”
Demaris Lee, executive director of the task force, said the woman had arrived at the building with her sister to pick up a food box.
“I don’t know what happened – she might have hit the brake and she hit the gas (instead),” Lee said. “Her sister that was with her, she got out of the car and was fine. Her sister walked away, and her son said that he had just bought the car for her last week.”
Because the task force building is owned by Asbury United Methodist Church, officials from that organization will look into insurance and other related matters. In the meantime, service at the task force is expected to continue at the roll-up door on the south side of the building.
“The area that she went through will have to be closed down, but we will try to operate on this side to help people with (food) boxes,” Lee said. “After she got through our first room, she did not hit our freezer or anything, so we’re in operation there if we can get it cleaned up.
“I think operation will continue with regular hours right now. We’re trying to assess the damage, and everything we had in that room will have to be thrown away because of all the glass.”
None of the task force’s employees or volunteers were injured when the car ran through the building.
“There was one person in there looking at the baby food, and she looked up and saw (the car) coming through, and she moved back out of the way,” Lee said. “So she was terrified, but she was okay.
“One of our volunteers was in the egg room, and then Mary, our office manager, was in her office. Shannon was in the back, so nobody got hurt. We’re very fortunate, because it could have been a lot worse."
None of the organization’s food boxes were destroyed in the incident.
“So we’ll be able to hand those out and everything,” Lee said. “We’ll probably just operate from this side of the building after they say it’s safe from where the wall is knocked out.”
