A pickup truck driven by an 89-year-old man tore through the front of Napoli’s Italian Restaurant in Pittsburg, Kansas, Sunday afternoon, injuring at least one person inside and causing significant damage to the building’s front entrance. First responders were dispatched at 12:37 p.m. to the restaurant at 1301 N. Broadway St., where police say the driver had been trying to park when he instead drove straight into the building.
The driver was identified as George Holcomb, 89, of West Mineral, according to fourstateshomepage.com. Police told the outlet that Holcomb was attempting to park in Napoli’s parking lot when he drove into the building instead. Crews with Pittsburg PD, Pittsburg Fire and Pittsburg EMS all responded to the scene, the station reported.
Accounts differ on exactly who was hurt inside the restaurant. Fourstateshomepage.com reported that a person inside, identified as Shelby Stein, was taken to a local hospital, while newstalkkzrg.com described the injured party only as a woman who was rushed to a local hospital for evaluation of possible injuries, with her condition not released. Neither report has been reconciled, and Hoodline is noting both versions as reported.
Front Entrance Heavily Damaged
The impact caused significant damage to the restaurant’s front entrance, per the same account from newstalkkzrg.com. Despite the extent of the damage, repair crews were already on site working to fix the building just a short time after the crash, the station noted.
Information about whether Holcomb faces any citations, along with details on when Napoli’s might reopen, was not immediately available, according to the station’s report. As of Sunday, no additional updates on the driver’s legal status or the restaurant’s timeline for reopening had surfaced.
Not Pittsburg’s First Restaurant Crash
Sunday’s crash wasn’t the first time a vehicle has plowed into a Pittsburg eatery. In an earlier incident, Lotus Express was temporarily closed after a vehicle crashed into one of its exterior walls, with fourstateshomepage.com reporting that Pittsburg Police responded to that scene at 6 a.m. on a Wednesday. In that case, 20-year-old Willie Earl Williams III was driving the truck that struck the south side of the restaurant, and authorities later determined he had fallen asleep before the crash. Williams suffered minor injuries and was taken to Mercy Hospital Pittsburg, the outlet reported.
For now, the extent of the patron’s injuries from Sunday’s crash at Napoli’s remains unclear, and neither the restaurant nor city officials have released further details on the investigation or the building’s road to reopening.
