TWINSBURG, Ohio — Businesses at the Twinsburg Town Center are under construction after a car crashed into it Thursday afternoon.
Around 1 p.m., Play It Again Sports employee Ryan Short said he felt the building shake.
“I was just working and out of nowhere, huge boom, building started shaking a little bit. I didn't think anything of it because people are on the roof all the time. I just kept working and then came outside, and there was a car through the building,” Short explained.
Short said a paramedic was inside Play It Again Sports when the crash occurred.
“[He] ran out, grabbed his bag and helped the guy out of the car, so that was pretty cool,” Short added. “I guess the [driver] had problems. He’s slowing up and then he just went fast right through a pillar. I guess he had a seizure or something.”
The pillar the driver crashed into is in front of TNT Tanning, which has been closed since September.
Right next door to the crash is Mango Thai Cuisine.
Mango Thai Cuisine Owner Nok said she was in the kitchen when the crash happened.
“We were having some customers in the dining room, but they were sitting at the right side of the restaurant. Once I saw what was going on, I asked them to move and then the fire department and the police came in and asked us to evacuate all the customers out of the building from the back,” Nok shared.
Nok said officials then told her everyone could go back inside, but for the time being, only the left side of the dining room would be usable.
“The reason we decided to close is because we talked to the owner of the building and he said, during this [demolition], it might cause some part of the stone to hit the glass, so it might not be safe for the customers to come in,” Nok said.
An excavator was at the property Thursday afternoon. It demolished part of the shopping center up to the business's front door, knocking down the pillars and partially ripping up the roof.
Mango Thai Cuisine plans to reopen on Friday.
As for Play It Again Sports, it’s been business as usual.
“No damage, nothing. We're open. We'll be open,” Short said.
We reached out to Twinsburg Police for more information.
