Milford store may collapse after pickup truck crash
MILFORD — A Meadowside Road convenience store was deemed unsafe for occupation Monday after a pickup truck sideswiped a car at a nearby intersection and crashed through the front window.
One person was transported to the hospital with minor injuries, officials said.
City building department workers inspected the Speedy Mart at 109 Meadowside Road shortly after the crash, which the fire department said occurred at about 12:30 p.m.
Jay Solanki, 22, of West Haven, was keeping an eye on the place for his uncle, store owner Sanjay Patel, when he heard squealing brakes and the much louder sound of the pickup hitting the one-story brick building, he said.
“It was very loud,” Solanki said. “I thought he (the pickup driver) might run away, so I jumped out.”
But the elderly man who was driving the pickup truck stayed at the scene until police arrived. A regular customer at the mart, he was apologetic about the crash, but also shaken up, Solanki said.
It wasn’t clear whether the pickup driver was the person taken to the hospital.
A regular customer, Cindy Mullins, commiserated with Patel and his family members who gathered in the parking lot. She saw the crash on the news and came right over, she said.
“I know all these guys. In that corner, where it hit, that’s where the cash registers are,” Mullins said, “so I was worried that someone was hurt.”
Solanki was also unsettled. He said his hands were still shaking six hours afterwards. It was a close call:
The pickup’s domino impact pushed together two coolers a few feet from him without him getting caught between them. He had to jump over them to get out of the building, he said.
Solanki only came to the store to allow Patel to walk home for lunch and to visit Patel’s son-in-law, who had just arrived.
“I called him up to have him stay there for 10 minutes,” said Patel, who has owned the store for 21 years. “I told him, ‘I’ll be right back.’ “