Bill paid, damages remain
After rushing to pay his insurance bill by 5 p.m., Mike Dillard, an 18-year-old Logan resident, drove his car into the Farmers Insurance Group building on Wednesday at approximately 4:25 p.m., Logan City Police officer Louise Speth said.
“He’s not hurt,” she said.
There were three people in the building, but they were “not hurt” either, Speth said.
Dillard said, “[I] didn’t come out of my seat, my CD player didn’t skip – nothing.”
Dillard said he was on the way to pay his auto insurance when he “hit a patch of gravel.” Dillard slammed on his brakes and “cranked the wheel all the way [but] wasn’t going anywhere but inside the building.”
Dillard’s 1996 Pontiac Sunfire ran into the brick siding of the building, just a few feet from the office window. The window broke after impact from hitting the brick, he said.
Dillard’s Sunfire ran into a gas meter connected to the pipe, breaking the pipe, Speth said.
Brent Womack, co-owner of Farmers Insurance Group was in the building when the car crashed. He said he had heard windows breaking, then went to call 911.
Once the workers had gotten the gas shut off at about 6:22 p.m., Womack said it “was the best sound I’ve heard in an hour.”
By 6 p.m. Dillard returned, after leaving to get a sweatshirt, and went inside to pay his car insurance.
After having to pay the $225 per month for car insurance, Dillard said he is looking at about $1,600 in car damages. Dillard said damages include a bent fender into the wheel, license plate “messed up, scratched hood and scratched scrape-pad under the car.” He said he met with Womack who said some of the damages would be covered under his $500 deductible.
The insurance company estimated $10,000 of building damages, Dillard said.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do with that,” he said.
Dillard also said he “got a ticket for negligent collision.”
As for being in other car accidents, Dillard said, “This is the first one.”
The “worst fear” was the possibility of a gas explosion, Speth said, before the gas had been shut off.
Dillard said, “If I wouldn’t have shut off my car,” there could have been a possibility of an explosion.