CENTER TWP — A duplex apartment damaged early Monday morning by a runaway car will be rebuilt while the woman displaced by the crash is “taking it day by day.”

“We haven't really decided too much how we're doing,” said Barbara Kroh, the tenant at 100-C Arthur Drive, a duplex-style apartment that was heavily damaged when it was hit by a car about 4:30 a.m. Monday.

“It was a long, rough night. But we're going to take it day by day,” Kroh said, referring to her niece, Melody Cunnigham, who also was in the apartment.

The apartment is owned by Larry Blain, who was not available this morning. However, his wife said the apartment would be rebuilt.

She said engineers had not yet looked at the damage caused by the wreck, but she did not believe the structure would have to be torn down.

“A building can be rebuilt,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “We're just glad no one inside was hurt.”

The vehicle, driven by Michael E. Mazurek, 49, of Summit Township, went off Route 308 northbound and about 400 feet down a steep hill, going airborne and slamming into the apartment's roof, destroying a wooden deck and punching holes in the building's western wall near Kroh's kitchen window and the door leading to the apartment's deck.

State police this morning said they suspect alcohol was a factor in the crash. Drunken driving charges against Mazurek are pending results of toxicology tests.

He already is facing a preliminary hearing next month stemming from a DUI arrest April 9 in Butler. City police said his blood-alcohol level was 0.174 percent — more than double the state's 0.08 percent legal limit — when he was stopped.