News

Car crashes through stone wall into doctor's office

A 1999 Mercedes Benz crashed into a medical office at 510 Fleming St.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 3, 2018

Miraculously, everyone emerged with only minor scrapes when an elderly driver plowed his Mercedes Benz through a stone wall and into a medical office where a doctor was seeing a patient on Wednesday morning.

The 86-year-old driver of the sedan "stated that the car would not stop," said Hendersonville police officer Garrett Gardin, who raced to the scene along with Lt. Jimmy Case when they received the call shortly after 10 a.m.

"Lt. Case jumped on top of the car to see about the people inside," Gardin said.

The crash turned a routine morning into a startlingly eventful one.

"I was in the room when it happened," said Dr. David Slawek. "I thought we were the victim of a terrorist attack. A bomb going off is what it sounded like, with flying debris and everything coming at me."

The 66-year-old patient was OK, Gardin said. The driver of the 1999 Mercedes did not appear to be injured but was taken to the Pardee Hospital emergency room to be examined as a precaution, the officer said.

Dairen Wilcox was in the Carolina Pediatric Therapy office when the crash happened.

"We heard a loud bang and we came out to see what happened," he said. "The patient and the doctor were pinned in the office and the elderly driver was pinned in the car. We couldn't get him out because of the briar bush."

Firefighters used the jaws of life to reach Dr. Slawek and the patient and to extract the driver from his car, Wilcox said.

Inside the office, after the Mercedes had been towed off, leaving a gaping hole in his office wall, Dr. Slawek was reading notes by lantern light. The power was off because of the crash.

"It's too early to tell" when the office can reopen for patient visits, he said. "We started the new year off with a bang."

"Luckily there were no severe injuries," Officer Gardin said. "This could have been very bad."