Marion County, West Virginia, Disability Action Center damaged by vehicular accident

“We’ve been through a lot here at the DAC,” Sole said. “We’ve had flooding; we’ve had trees fall and we’ve had break-ins, but nothing really prepared me for turning the corner and seeing the big, gaping hole in the side of the building where a passenger van had gone through.”

Sole said that at about 11:20 p.m. Monday, the van’s driver was traveling toward the center from Coal Run Hollow when the driver lost control and drove straight into the wall where the nonprofit’s therapy classrooms are located.

She said the van thankfully hit an indoor wall that separated the classrooms. If it hadn’t been for that, she said, there likely would have been much more damage to the building.

“It could’ve been much worse,” Sole said. “We’re very thankful that nobody was injured that we know of. We know there was nobody in the building at the time. It happened after hours, and it could have been much worse if it was during operating hours.”

Sole said she and the center’s other employees are dedicated to moving the therapy classrooms so the service can still be provided to clients.

“We already have a plan in place to relocate those therapy rooms to a different area of the center so there won’t be any gap in service for folks,” she said. “We’re already dealing with a lot, especially with our school-aged children who are experiencing what can only be described as an abnormal school year. Those therapies and the supplemental services we provide to special needs students and adults with disabilities are really important, so we’re going to reallocate space in the center.”

In the years she’s worked at the center, Sole said she’s always been worried that a driver coming from Coal Run Hollow would lose control one day and hit someone. While she’s glad there were no injuries, she still considers this incident a sobering reminder to passersby.

“It’s very alarming to look at the footage of the speed of vehicles that come down through Fifth Street to Coal Run Hollow,” Sole said. “This is another wake-up call that people are driving way too fast down here. We had foreshadowed that, one of these days, somebody was going to lose control and drive into our building. Unfortunately, that has come true.”

Sole told WV News that a building inspector was scheduled to examine the damage Tuesday, and — due to the center’s nonprofit status and already low funding due to COVID-19 — she hopes insurance money can pay for the bulk of repairs.

“It’s definitely an additional stressor,” she said. “We’re hoping that we can allow the insurance companies to do their job. … We hope we can get this taken care of quickly. This is not a cost that we can bear ourselves. We have to go through the correct channels. We have to make sure our facility is as safe as possible, but we do not have the funds to respond to a real accident like this.”