A pickup truck tore through the front of a Joliet Goodwill store Friday morning, coming to rest just steps from the checkout counter after the driver failed to stop before hitting the building, according to police. The 64-year-old woman behind the wheel suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. No one inside the store was hurt.
The crash happened just before 10:45 a.m. in the 3000 block of Hennepin Drive, according to CBS News Chicago, at the Goodwill Store and Donation Center that operates under Goodwill Greater Milwaukee and Chicago at 3084 Hennepin Drive, according to Goodwill Greater Milwaukee & Chicago. Police said the woman was trying to pull into a parking space in front of the store when the truck slammed through the front of the building and came to rest near the cash register inside. As of the report, police had not said whether any charges or citations were pending.
A Parking Lot Mishap With a National Pattern
As unusual as it sounds to see a truck parked next to a checkout counter, incidents like this happen with striking regularity across the country. National data compiled by the Storefront Safety Council and cited by Blockaides shows that roughly 100 vehicle-into-building crashes occur daily in the United States, resulting in about 16,000 injuries and 2,600 fatalities annually. The same analysis found that pedal and operator errors cause 41% of these crashes, while impaired driving accounts for 15% and medical emergencies represent 9%.
Federal research backs up just how common the Joliet scenario is. A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, reported by the Claims Journal, estimated that 16,000 pedal misapplication crashes happen each year in the U.S., with about 57% occurring in parking lots or driveways. The same research found that female drivers are involved in nearly two-thirds of pedal misapplication crashes, and that drivers over 65 or under 20 experience these errors at roughly four times the rate of other age groups.
Prior Crashes Along the Same Corridor
Hennepin Drive has seen its share of major traffic trouble before. In June 2022, a collision on the corridor forced the Joliet Police Department to shut down the roadway between Essington Road and Route 30 for an extended investigation. And storefront crashes carry real stakes in the region: in nearby Crest Hill, a 36-year-old restaurant employee was killed in October 2021 when a 90-year-old driver lost control while parking and crashed through a strip mall storefront, according to Joliet Patch.
Whether the Hennepin Drive Goodwill had any low-speed safety bollards installed out front remains an open question. ASTM International set a standard, F3016, in 2014 specifically to test and rate barriers designed to stop vehicles weighing up to 5,000 pounds traveling 10 to 30 mph from penetrating storefronts, according to Post Guard. It is not yet known whether such protections were in place at this location before Friday's crash.
What Happens Next for the Store
Structural inspections, building code enforcement, and repair permits for commercial storefront damage in Joliet fall under the city's Community Development Department, a detail Hoodline noted in its coverage of the department's leadership shakeup. The timeline for repairs to the Goodwill building, and how long the store might need to remain closed near the impact site, has not been announced.
The Joliet location functions as both a retail thrift store and a donation center, with sales proceeds funding local workforce training while diverting thousands of pounds of donated goods from area landfills each year, according to Goodwill Greater Milwaukee & Chicago. Any extended closure would affect that broader community mission, though it remains unclear how quickly the storefront can be repaired and reopened to shoppers.
