Part of Petersburg’s downtown was closed for nearly an hour on Jan. 9.
Just after 7 p.m., George Marlow was waiting for a ride home from work at the IGA grocery store when he witnessed a black truck make a U-turn at the north end of Main Street. That’s when, he said, the truck rammed into a trash can on the sidewalk.
“Nearly got me right there,” Marlow said. “He hit the garbage can, he seen me standing there and he just got on it … way too fast.”
Heading south, the truck smashed into a parked white SUV on the same block.
It was Jessica Guggenbickler’s car. She had just finished working an eight-hour shift at IGA.
“I came out of work, and as soon as I turned to look at my car, it was on the sidewalk, and I saw that car like trying to reverse,” she said. “As I was on the phone with 911, he was able to reverse somehow, and then sped off and then lost control again.”
Next, the truck hit a second parked car — and then the front of Petersburg’s cannabis dispensary, The 420.
“Boom, boom, boom,” Marlow summarized.
The truck backed away from the building, but its driver was unable to get the vehicle away from the sidewalk.
Dan Bird is the fire department’s chief. He said Petersburg Police officers first responded to the scene.
“They were there, and [the driver] was still spinning the tires thinking he could still go. But the front tires … kind of folded up underneath the truck, so the vehicle’s going nowhere,” Bird said.
“All [the driver] was doing was burning rubber on his tires,” said Guggenbickler. “Then the officer went over there and said, stop.”
The truck driver was transported to the local medical center with minor injuries. No one else was hurt.
Guggenbickler said, if she had left work minutes earlier, she could’ve been inside of her car when it was hit.
“So it’s a blessing, but also a curse,” she said.
Her car remained on the southbound sidewalk when the street reopened to traffic.
“Definitely not something I was expecting,” Guggenbickler said. “It’s really upsetting. I have a loan on that car. So I’ve got, I guess, a lot of work I got to do to get a new one.”
There were still shards of glass and shattered taillights on the side of Main Street the following morning. The front of The 420 appeared damaged, but intact.
Police are still investigating what happened and have declined to comment for now. At this time, the extent of the damage is unknown.
