Pedestrian seriously injured when knocked through wall by SUV

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A pedestrian was seriously injured Tuesday morning when an SUV crashed into a Greyhound Bus Station on West New Circle Road.

According to witnesses and firefighters, the pedestrian, described by police as a homeless man seeking shelter from torrential rain, was on the sidewalk outside the building at 477 W. New Circle when a Ford Excursion with two people inside struck him and drove him through the front wall into the business, which was not open at the time.

The Excursion was pulling in to park when the woman driver’s foot slipped off the brake onto the gas.

The man was on the floor inside the building when firefighters arrived. He was taken by ambulance to the UK Medical Center.

The accident happened at about 10:30 a.m.

Firefighters backed the SUV from the hole in the wall and built a wooden frame to support it to prevent any additional collapse or damage. City building inspectors were looking at the building to see if it is structurally sound and the nature of the repairs, according to the fire department.

The man and woman in the Ford Excursion were not injured, firefighters said.

As strange as it seems, vehicle versus building calls are not that unusual in Lexington, although in most cases, the damage is minor and usually the result of the driver’s foot slipping on a pedal.

“It’s fairly often in Lexington that a vehicle will bump a structure. We get dispatched quitte often to vehicles versus structure calls, but it’s not very often they do that much damage,” said Capt. Dustin Whited with the Lexington Fire Department.

“I would say they got knocked through the wall, they started on the outside and got pushed through the wall by the front of the vehicle, I would say they are in serious condition,” Whited added