Selma Road church cleans up after car plows fence, hits utility pole

A local church spent Wednesday cleaning up debris from an accident that sent three people, including a child, to the hospital.

Springfield Police said according to a preliminary investigation, a vehicle went airborne after hitting and knocking out a traffic signal control box at the intersection of Tibbetts Avenue and Selma Road around 10:30 p.m Tuesday.

While in the air, that vehicle skidded across the top of a second vehicle. The driver of the second vehicle was knocked unconscious, but their foot was stuck on the gas.

That sent the vehicle across the parking lot of the First Church of the Open Bible, through a fence and into a pole on York Street, where the vehicle caught on fire.

Three people inside the second vehicle, including a nine-year-old boy were taken to area hospitals.

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One of the people in the vehicle was discharged from Springfield Regional Medical Center, but the other two occupants’ conditions weren’t immediately available Wednesday evening.

Surveillance video from the church provided to the Springfield News-Sun by Pastor Jim Ballard shows the two vehicles collide near the intersection. The second car is seen plowing through two fences and taking out a bush before it goes out of sight.

David Driscoll, one of the church’s ushers hauled away some of the scrap metal from the downed fence and brushed up car pieces from the parking lot.

“I came to clean up the mess and check it all out,” he said.

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Driscoll said it’s not often that something like this happens, but he is glad that there wasn’t a church service in session at the time of the accident because of the potential for more damage.

“Just hoping that everybody is alright and no one got seriously injured. This stuff can all be replaced,” he said.

Pastor Ballard said he didn’t have an exact estimate from the church’s insurance company yet, but he personally guessed a repair would cost a few thousand dollars.

There was another accident at the same intersection just an hour before the airborne crash. In that case, everyone walked away without major injuries.

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