Vehicle will be taken care of on Sunday afternoon to Oregon Business – Shaw Local

OREGON – No one was injured Sunday afternoon when a car plowed into a downtown restaurant after being hit by another vehicle at a nearby intersection.

Oregon State Police Chief Joe Brooks said the 12:50 p.m. crash occurred when a vehicle traveling southbound on Illinois Route 2 (Fourth Street) failed to stop at the intersection of Illinois Route 64 (Washington Street) and struck a westbound SUV.

“The southbound driver ran a red light and struck a westbound vehicle, causing the driver to lose control and crash into the building,” Brooks said.

After the impact, the SUV traveled across the sidewalk to the south side of the Ogle County Brewery, smashing through a glass-enclosed garage door into the dining room and surprising some chairs and tables.

Kim M. Risley, 70, of Rockford, was ticketed for disobeying a traffic control device, Brooks said.

Brewery employee Katie Gatton, who was behind the bar at the time of the crash, said the restaurant was occupied by 10 people at the time, but customers were seated near the bar, several feet away from the garage door that opens during summer dining hours. .

“Thankfully no one was close enough to the door to be hit by the car and the flying glass,” Gatton said. “We were able to call 911 and apparently the police and paramedics arrived right away. We wanted to make sure the driver was unharmed. Thankfully, they weren’t and none of the customers were.

The impact caused part of the large garage door to come to rest on the SUV, prompting Oregon firefighters to secure the door after the driver exited the vehicle.

Gatton said the crash happened quickly.

“I was behind the bar and I was just like backup and some of our guests were trying to figure out where to go. We were hoping to get everyone out and see how far this car would go. It’s very difficult in those conditions, everything happens so fast,” Gatton said.

The SUV began working with firefighters from the dining area and one of the building’s owners, Mark Galle of Wiggle Inc., Oregon, to figure out how to remove the damaged door.

“It took a while,” said Oregon Fire Chief Mike Knopp. “Garage doors are dangerous because of the heavy duty springs and this was completely out of the way. It had to be separated.”

Fire crews remained at the scene until 3:30 p.m.

A friend of mine, Gale Justin Lehman, came over and helped him and his son, Dan, hold the door separately.

“Justin has experience doing garage doors so he was able to pick up some of the torsion. We took out all the windows and pulled them out one by one,” Gale said.

The business will not be open on Monday, and hours may change during maintenance.

“It’s going to be beautiful again,” Gale said. “But it might take a while. We’ll make some temporary fixes to keep everything safe.”

Gale thanked everyone who helped after the accident.

“A lot of people jumped in and helped…firefighters, police…thankfully no one was hurt,” he said.