Garage faces 'long process' after wreck
HARRISVILLE — A four-decades-old auto repair business here is working to put its nearly destroyed garage back together.
Much of Jack Edwards Auto Parts and Machine Shop's garage was damaged July 10 when a car drove into it.
Owner Jack Edwards said he is not sure when the garage will be fully operational. “I don't know where we're at,” he said.
The accident happened July 10 around 11:25 a.m. when a 1994 Chevrolet Lumina driven by Barb Heasley, 65, of Grove City pulled out of a nearby gas station. Heasley said her throttle stuck and she could not stop the car.
It rammed through a post separating two repair bays in the garage. The impact caused several cement blocks, two aluminum doors and part of a wooden roof to fall on and around the car.
Heasley and her granddaughter, Lindsay Knight, 28, of New Castle were treated and released from the Grove City Medical Center after suffering minor injuries.
Darien Louis, 4, Knight's son, suffered minor bruising caused by his seat belt. A fourth passenger was not injured.
Edwards said the company got an estimate and a partial payment from its insurance company last week.
Jim Edwards, Jack's son, declined to give an estimate of the damage. He said there is no definitive plan for the business, but, “we'll probably be staying.”
The shop started in Harrisville in 1969 and has operated in its current location since the early 1970s.
It focuses on basic car repair, machine work and auto parts sales. In addition to individual customers, the shop gets business from car dealerships in neighboring communities such as Grove City, Barkeyville and Franklin.
He said cleanup of the shop is still under way.
“We've been working on it every day since it happened,” Jim Edwards said. “It's going to be a long process.”
Although the garage is closed, the auto parts store is open.
The accident shut down the electric service to the garage. The garage and machine shop are on a different lines than the store, allowing the store to continue to operate.
Jim Edwards said the company is waiting for the electric company to repair the service in the machine shop. He said that the store has gotten fewer customers since the accident.
“Most of them know we're out of it right now, but they'll be back,” Jim Edwards said.
The father and son are the only employees at the shop. Jim Edwards said it is difficult for them to clean up and keep the store going, but also said that they are doing OK.
“We're making it,” he said.
