Truck collides with building

Published 9:22 pm Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A quiet afternoon in downtown Selma changed quickly when a Chevrelet Silverado crashed into the Karate World around 3:18 pm. The driver of the vehicle was taken from the scene in an ambulance. -- Chris Wasson

By Alison McFerrin

The Selma Times-Journal

Emergency vehicles swarmed the intersection of Broad Street and Alabama Avenue about 3 p.m. Wednesday when a truck crashed into Karate Central in the 100 block of Broad Street.

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“It looked like he was having a seizure,” bystander Christina Harrison said. Christina and her husband Leland were stopped at the light at the intersection when the crash happened.

“He was laying in the seat — his arm — he was flailing,” Christina said.

Selma Fire Chief Mike Stokes said the driver was alert and coherent while being loaded into the ambulance. The ambulance left the scene at 3:18 p.m.

Before crashing into Karate World, the driver of the gray Chevrolet Silverado also hit another truck parked on Broad Street in front of Roy’s Fine Jewelry. Roy Boroughs, to whom the truck belonged, said he walked out after he heard the crash and didn’t know anything “except I gotta get a new tail light,” Boroughs said.

Christina said a bystander removed the driver from the vehicle before emergency services arrived.

“We kept telling them, ‘Don’t pull him out,’ but all the smoke and everything that was coming out scared them,” Christina said.

Officer Cody Clark said he would ask the driver what happened once the driver was stable at the hospital.