Center Line

Driver smashes into Center Line store

By Brian Louwers
C & G Staff Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Brian C. Louwers Patrick Delong of Troy was working in an office just inside the glass when a Jeep slammed into the front of ACO Hardware on 10 Mile west of Van Dyke Feb. 13. Photo by Brian C. Louwers Patrick Delong of Troy was working in an office just inside the glass when a Jeep slammed into the front of ACO Hardware on 10 Mile west of Van Dyke Feb. 13.

An elderly driver lost control of his Jeep momentarily Feb. 13 and slammed into the front of a Center Line hardware store, narrowly missing the store’s manager working just beyond the glass.

“We heard a loud crash. My first instinct was to pull myself out of the way, as deep into the office as I could,” said Patrick Delong of Troy, 57, store manager of ACO Hardware on 10 Mile just west of Van Dyke.

Delong said he was working in the store’s front office area at about 12:30 p.m. when a Jeep Wrangler came through the windows.

“I was just deep enough, it didn’t get me,” Delong said the next day, as crews worked outside to repair the damage. “It makes you think.”

Center Line Public Safety personnel were quickly summoned to the plaza — almost directly across 10 Mile from the police and fire station — where they found the driver, an 85-year-old man, unharmed and still in the vehicle.

City Manager John Michrina said the driver reported that his foot slipped from the brake and onto the gas pedal by accident.

“His foot slipped off the brake, hit the accelerator, and through the window he went,” Michrina said.

Delong said the store remained open after the incident.

He said he recognized the driver as someone who had probably been in the store before.

“He came up through the window into the office area. He just missed me,” Delong said.

Michrina said it did not appear as if any charges would be filed.
 

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Brian Louwers at brianlouwers@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1089.