CAR HITS JACKSON BUSINESS

JACKSON -- Just after noon Tuesday, Division 3 Circuit Court clerk Earlene Sokolowski stood at the counter in Jones Drug Store buying Tylenol for a headache when she heard "a horrible noise."

As plate glass shattered and the floor rumbled, Sokolowski and others in and nearby the courthouse square store thought an earthquake had struck. Actually, it was a Chrysler New Yorker.

The car was driven by Paul Bollinger of Jackson. Bollinger's foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas pedal as he parked the car in one of the diagonal spaces in front of the drug store, said Jackson police officer Rick Whitaker.

The car jumped the high curb and plowed completely into the left side of the 127-year-old building. People who came running at first didn't see the car because it was so far inside the store.

Bollinger, 86, and his wife, Virginia, were not injured. No one inside the building was hurt either, though some of them have blessings to count.

Gail Howard, who runs the store's diabetic section, does her paperwork behind the window where the car came through. She had been sitting at her desk all morning but happened not to be there when the crash occurred.

"I know I'm lucky," she said.

Her desk was not so fortunate.

The car came closest to Sokolowski. She heard glass shattering, turned and saw a counter and a car coming at her as if in a slow-motion movie scene.

"The counter kept coming at me and the car kept coming at me," she said.

Sokolowski isn't sure why, but she didn't run toward the back of the store. She walked.

"I guess I couldn't believe what I saw," she said.

The car finally stopped five feet from her, hemming her in. The employees had to move the counter before she could leave.

Sokolowski coolly paid for her purchases and walked back across the street to the courthouse. "That's when my knees started shaking," she said.

Guesses differ on how many people were in the store at the time, but most of them were employees.

Another lucky one was Laverne Whitener, who had been putting merchandise out near the diabetic section only five minutes before the crash. The Bollingers are regular customers at the store, she said.

"He usually stays out in the car and she comes into the store, but this time he came in," said Whitener.

Gene Brockett has owned the drug store for 28 years. A minor fire upstairs was the only previous mishap. He planned to open the store back up right after the wrecker crew pulled the car out.

The building doesn't appear to have any structural damage, he said. He is just thankful that the tragedy that could have happened didn't.

"We feel very fortunate," Brockett said.