Car plows into Benton store after I-55 collision

BENTON, Mo. -- Shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday, an 88-year-old woman named Rosie Young of Senatobia, Miss., was traveling down Interstate 55 near Benton in her 2006 Dodge Stratus when she noticed that she missed a turnoff for fresh strawberries.

She spotted a place where she could cross over the median, and she started slowing down in the northbound passing lane, as did her brother, James Chapuis, who was following her.

Meanwhile, inside the Antique Centre Mall, employee Phyllis Schwartz was working the cash register toward the front of the building. Several ladies in red hats and purple outfits chatted at a table.

They were unaware that, perhaps 100 yards away, Young was about to crash their party.

Travis Crihfield, 23, driving a black Chevrolet pickup, was apparently startled to see a vehicle in front of him flash its brake lights, so he swerved onto the shoulder and into the median to avoid Chapuis' white pickup, according to a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper who investigated the accident. When Crihfield swerved to miss the white truck, the Dodge Stratus suddenly appeared in his view.

Impact was inevitable.

Crihfield smashed into Young's driver-side door. One witness said the impact rendered the elderly woman unconscious as she inadvertently accelerated across the interstate's two southbound lanes. They said her head bobbed up and down as the car bounded over the shoulder, bounced over the grass, busted through a barb-wire fence, rolled over an outer road, rumbled through a relatively empty orchard field and smashed into the north side of the antique mall.

A serving set and glassware remained untouched near a car that plowed through a wall and several antique displays at the Antique Centre Mall in Benton, Mo., on Thursday.

Inside, the women heard the finale of the woman's wild ride.

"It shook the whole building," said Kathryn Hamra, who leases a booth inside the mall.

Phyllis Schwartz, the antique mall employee, and the Red Hat Society members looked toward the back of the building. One of them exclaimed that the roof had collapsed.

Schwartz hurried to the back of the store, which was filled with dust. She looked at the ceiling, wondering at first what had caused the sudden implosion. Then she looked to her left.

"Oh my God, it's a car!" she exclaimed.

A Dodge Stratus came to rest 42 feet inside the store. An unconscious woman sat inside.

A couple of passers-by, including the woman's brother and the man who was driving the black pickup truck, rushed over to the building to see if the woman was OK.

Schwartz called 911. By the time an ambulance arrived minutes later, Young was asking questions. Phyllis and the men who stopped at the store thought it was best to not try to remove her. An ambulance took her to Saint Francis Medical Center.

Chapuis, reached at the hospital, said his sister was sore but in good shape. He said X-rays revealed no broken bones, but doctors told her she'd have to stay overnight. She was wearing a neck brace, he said.

Cpl. Jeff McCullough investigated the crash.

When asked how the accident rated among the more strange accidents he's handled, he said "It's definitely a Top 5. Just when you think you've seen it all."

The bizarre accident destroyed thousands of dollars in merchandise.

Rodney Huckstep, who leased one of the three booths affected by the accident, lost thousands of dollars in antiques. The Dodge Stratus smashed a furniture set that dated to the 1800s. He was asking $1,200 for the set. He also lost a late-1800s hideaway sofa bed. The bed's metal-spring skeleton rested behind the car. The cushions and upholstery came to rest in a heap of merchandise that included smashed glassware, pottery and other knickknacks. Huckstep also lost a china cabinet worth about $300, two red velvet chairs worth about $350 and a $250 game table.

As for the building itself, the damage didn't appear extensive from the outside. It looked more like a truck backed into the building's outer shell. But the inside is a different story. A large portion of the dropped ceiling fell. Gray insulation dusted much of the back of the building. The car managed to miss vertical support beams, however.

Hours after the woman was taken to the hospital, Schwartz found herself in the role of Antique Centre spokeswoman, giving interviews to the media. She said she felt sorry for the woman in the crash. Her voice was deliberate and serious.

Others found humor in the situation.

Hamra said she was on her way to the back of the store when she stopped to talk with some of the Red Hat ladies. She was thankful that her talkative nature prevented serious injury or death. But she also thought of the accident as a marketing opportunity.

"We're the only drive-through antique mall in Southeast Missouri," she said.

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 122