6 days ago
Vehicle smashes through multiple Pinecrest Plaza storefronts
The Monongalia County Sheriff's Department is investigating how a vehicle ended up driving through roughly 100 feet of storefronts off Point Marion Road on Thursday.
According to information shared by MCSD, deputies were alerted to an accident at Pinecrest Plaza at 11:40 arrived to find a vehicle completely inside the mixed-use building owned by RDR Properties, which falls under Metro Property Management.
Two vehicles in the parking lot were hit and received heavy damage before the wayward Buick struck the building at a shallow angle and plowed through multiple vacant storefronts before partially exiting the building approximately 100 feet away.
Dave Biafora, representing Metro Property Management, said he believes a medical issue caused the driver to lose control.
Both the driver and passenger of the vehicle received on-scene treatment before being transported to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital for further care, according to the MCSD.
'Luckily, nobody got really hurt,' Biafora said, explaining the storefronts to the right of the entry point are occupied, while those that ended up in the line of travel are not.
'There was damage to the building, obviously, and all the storefronts – drywall, interior walls, ceiling lights. He basically took out the left half of the building,' Biafora said. 'That type of structure, the basement and lower level is all concrete and metal and steel. The top floor is all wood. The way the car actually went in the middle of the storefronts and came out almost at the end was absolutely amazing, truly.'
According to Biafora, tenants in the 18 second-floor apartments were not required to relocate as the apartments were not damaged and the building remains structurally sound.
He said facilities personnel with MPM had the site cleaned up by 4 p.m. or so.
'You go back up and look and you'll just think someone took the doors and windows out. It's all cleaned up, everything is stabilized, the building's inspected, the fire alarms checked, the power company came through and everything's good,' he said.
In addition to the sheriff's department, Mon EMS, Cheat Lake Fire Rescue and Brookhaven Fire Rescue responded to the scene.
