Crime & Safety

Van Crashes Through John Deere Showroom in Hunt Valley

Baltimore County Crash Team officer says one person was taken to the hospital. The crash is still under investigation.

(UPDATE 3:50 p.m.)—A van operated by a woman traveled  from a Shell gas station on York Road, across the street, up a small incline and into the showroom of Finch Services in the 11000 block of York Road in Hunt Valley on Sunday, said Ray Finch, an owner.

"Some of my employees went by minutes after the accident," Finch said. From what the employees said, "an elderly lady came all the way from the Shell station all the way across [the four-lane York Road], hit some vehicles on Papermill, and somehow came in this direction and hit the building."

Damaged were the plate-glass windows, about 10 machines, including tractors, wood stoves and pellet stoves, which made up about half of the merchandise in the showroom, Finch said.

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He said the woman was coherent as she was taken away in an ambulance.

"Fortunately, we were closed [Sunday]," he said. "Otherwise, there would have been other people [in the showroom]."

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"The van was sitting inside," said Finch, pointing to the showroom. "It was all the way in." He described it as a large, conversion-type van.

He pointed out a white scrape line across York Road that shows the path the van took across the street, apparently dragging something, he said.

Meanwhile, Finch Services employees helped clean up the showroom Sunday. Using a large shovel, they scraped chunks of glass from the turf carpeting, moved damaged machines, and threw away loose branches from the bushes in front of the building.

Earlier in the afternoon, an officer with the Baltimore County Crash Team confirmed that a vehicle crashed into a window before 11 a.m. at the store, at 11212 York Road in Hunt Valley. One person was taken to an area hospital, he said.

The incident is under investigation, said the officer, who asked that he not be identified.

The store was expected to reopen Monday, the owners said.


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