Driver falls asleep, goes through wall of Salida church’s kitchen
A driver who nodded off at the wheel plowed into the kitchen of the fellowship hall at First Congregational Church on Broadway Avenue at Finney Road on Monday morning.
At about 5:45 a.m., a man who lives on the corner of Finney and Westwood Drive, directly across from the church, was returning home, driving east on Westwood, when he fell asleep before turning north on Finney to enter the home’s driveway and instead drove straight through the “T” intersection and into the church, church members said.
The California Highway Patrol identified the driver as Miguel Ramirez, 30. A woman who answered the door at Ramirez’s home confirmed church members’ account of what happened.
Ramirez’s PT Cruiser went through the concrete-block wall and fully into the kitchen. He was talking with CHP officers and did not request or receive medical treatment, said Salida Fire Protection District Capt. John Alberti.
First Congregational Church pastor Kevin Roach said the crash broke gas and water lines, flooding bathrooms at the fellowship hall and requiring service to be turned off. Electricity was out in the hall but still on in the church sanctuary, Roach said.
Surveying the damage to the exterior wall, including a number of broken and missing blocks, church member Dave Baker said, “We’ve got to get a beam in there to hold up that block because that’s holding up the roof.”
The crash did extensive damage to the kitchen, including to cabinetry and countertops. The kitchen was remodeled in 2007, Roach said, as part of construction of a church addition that also included bathrooms and Sunday school rooms.
Several church members who gathered in the fellowship hall after hearing of the crash said the large, industrial-grade oven and stovetop in the kitchen also will have to be replaced. The appliance cost $2,500 when it was purchased 25 years ago, Roach said.
The church is having a corned beef and cabbage dinner on March 17 but no longer will be able to prepare the meal in the kitchen or serve it in the fellowship hall, said church member Janna Lou Baker. When she mentioned that to Salida Fire Protection District firefighters who responded to the crash, they invited the church to hold the dinner at Station 12, 4820 Salida Blvd.
“We’re going to open up the whole firehouse to them,” Alberti said, because the church kitchen was “demolished.”
As for a dollar estimate to the damage, “it’s too soon to tell,” Alberti said. “Thousands upon thousands (of dollars). They’re still pulling Sheetrock. There were cracks in the ceiling discovered we’d not seen earlier at the time of the crash.”
The church dinner at the firehouse will be from 5 to 7 p.m., and tickets are $10. For more information, call the church at 209-545-1156.
This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Driver falls asleep, goes through wall of Salida church’s kitchen."