EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. — For the second time in three months, a car crashed into the roof of the Clay-Ray Veterans Association Memorial Hall in Excelsior Springs.
Lt. Ryan Dowdy with the Excelsior Springs Police Department explained it happened around 7:20 a.m. on Wednesday.
Police determined the car was coming down Kearney Road and crossing into Linwood Avenue, when it blew through a stop sign, crossed Wildwood Street and launched through the trees. It then hit the pavement on Sycamore Street before flipping and landing on the Memorial Hall.
According to police, the driver was able to remove themselves from the car, get off the roof, and walk to the ambulance on scene. Police have not heard of any serious injuries.
"We got a phone call, and we’re like, 'No, couldn’t happen,'" said Randy Harrington, vice commander at the VFW. "And then we get down here and the car is in the roof, basically the same place as the other one."
Harrington and other veterans were excited to move back into the hall. They had just restored the roof from the previous crash.
"We’re planning, you know, doing a car show, grand opening in July, you know, but all that seems to be gone now," Harrington said.
Other residents were just as shocked as Harrington, and thought the news was wrong when they saw the reports.
"I thought, 'Is this the old news or is this the new news?'" said Abby Williams, a business owner in downtown Excelsior Springs.
While the veterans have to rebuild again, the Excelsior Springs Police Department is trying to figure out ways to prevent crashes into the building.
"We’ll revisit this as a team and talk with our MODOT partners, and if something needs to be changed up there, we’ll definitely get it changed," Lt. Dowdy said.
Sticking to the speed limit and following signage is advised, but the solution may not be that simple.
"One’s kind of an anomaly," Lt. Dowdy said. "But then you get to the second one and it’s like, well maybe now there's starting to be a pattern."
It's a pattern that needs to be stopped, because no resident wants to wake up to this news again.
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