CAPE MAY — A car crashed into Collier’s Liquor Store just after 7:15 p.m. Sept. 2. The airbags deployed, but no one was seriously injured.
At the time of the accident, there was one employee inside the office of Collier’s Liquor Store at 202 Jackson St. The employee suffered minor scrapes and scratches.
Co-owner Reid Levin said he was in the shop assisting customers at the time of the accident. On a typical day, employees are working at their desks in the office, completing orders, but fortunately no one was stocking the warehouse at the time of the accident.
“We heard a loud boom and it sounded like a bomb,” Levin said. “I ran to the office and one of the employees was hit by a door that flew off and knocked him out of the chair.”
Levin said the employee was shaken up, and they did not realize what had happened until someone said a car had hit the building. Levin went outside and called 911.
“We’re extremely fortunate that it hit where it did, because the building did not sustain structural damage,” he said. “We did lose a lot of inventory, but it can be replaced, the building can be fixed, but human life cannot be replaced.”
Collier’s was able to open the following day after staff spent more than five hours cleaning up debris from the accident.
“If [the accident] had been a week before, there would have been people, families and children walking past the store,” Levin said. “It could’ve been catastrophic and thank God it wasn’t.”
Levin added that the staff and store are recovering, and the fact that no one was injured was an absolute blessing.
A Facebook post from Collier’s on Sept. 3 stated, “we hope that the dangerous intersection in front of the store receives the attention it needs before another incident occurs.”
The accident at the intersection of Jackson and Lafayette streets was mentioned during the Cape May City Council meeting on Sept. 3.
“The [city] manager and I spoke about it this morning, [about] the possibility of putting bollards there,” Police Chief Dekon Fashaw said. “Councilwoman Lorraine Baldwin [and I] have spoken about it over the years.”
Fashaw added that he and other officers had laid out places where bollards could be installed.
“Sooner rather than later to do it,” he said. “It’s costly but last night could have been a tragedy. The service guy that was working in Collier’s was knocked off where he was and you know how busy it is there.”
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave
