Normally The Building Wins

Car vs. building: Car wins

Rescue workers save driver after freak accident collapses Merrimon structure

photo: Bill Sanders/staff photographer Demolition workers look over the remains of the Allison Building at 500 Merrimon Ave. after a car went into the building Tuesday. The car is still buried under the building rubble.

By Clarke Morrison
STAFF WRITER

published: September 21, 2005 6:00 am

ASHEVILLE — Merrimon Avenue was blocked most of the day Tuesday after a car knocked out two support columns of a building, causing much of the brick structure’s front to tumble onto the roadway.

The driver of the car, Abigail Colburn, and three emergency workers attempting to rescue her went through some harrowing moments as more of the building came crashing down while they were inside, said Tommy Brooks, division chief with the Asheville Fire Department.

The paramedic and two firefighters avoided injury and got the woman out safely, Brooks said. The driver suffered minor injuries in the 6:30 a.m. crash and was treated at the hospital and released, he said.

The accident at 500 Merrimon Ave., across from The Hop ice cream shop, shut down the road’s four lanes as city inspectors, Day Associates Engineering, D.H. Griffin Demolition and the state Department of Transportation worked to stabilize the building and clean up debris, Deputy Fire Marshal Kelley Webb said.

Traffic was detoured, and several businesses in the area were closed. Tuesday night, Merrimon remained closed as a demolition crew took down more from the front of the building facing the road.

Dozens of onlookers from surrounding neighborhoods came out to watch as crews scooped up rubble and dragged the black coupe from the debris.

“It’s hard to believe that a little car could do that much damage,” said John Field, 69.

Police said they expected to open the road late Tuesday or early today.

The car was headed south on Merrimon when it was clipped by another car, went out of the control and crashed into the building, authorities said, knocking loose a center support beam. The Allison Building dates to 1924, said its owner, Robert Johnson. The section of the building most heavily damaged was vacant, he said.

Johnson said he arrived at the scene within an hour after the crash.

“I was like, ‘Holy cow!’ There must have been 50 people down here,” he said. “The lady in the car was my first thought. (The building) is just bricks and mortar. It can be replaced.”