CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE)- A local healthcare facility was left seriously damaged after a car slammed right into it. Data from hundreds of COVID-19 tests are usually being processed at Starmount Healthcare Management, but not today.
The driver of the vehicle was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and the owner of the company tells FOX 46 that at last check, that driver was still in critical condition.
“At approximately 1 a.m., a car came right down right from Ashley on Tuckaseegee, lost control, looks like he was speeding and came right through. Took out our Crepe Myrtle and went right into our building,” CEO Mike Estramonte said.
The driver was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Estamonte says the crash, which was caught on surveillance from several angles, could have been deadly if the building was open.
“It would’ve been disastrous. Just in that area behind the blue tarp, there’s approximately five people who work in that area. So, it took that entire wing of the building out.”
The devastation made even more clear from the inside. Starmount Healthcare Management was just renovated from top to bottom just eight months ago and is used to process several hundred COVID-19 tests taken every day and other test results.
“Fortunately, it didn’t impact things because our facilities crew was out here at 1:00 in the morning and we moved everything into our other building in our makeshift conference room so our resulting and our data entry didn’t miss a beat.”
The company’s CEO tells FOX 46 the work they do during the pandemic is vital to the community but his biggest concern was everyone’s safety.
“The gentleman that was doing the disaster relief said he’d never seen in 30 years a vehicle go through two concrete walls and another internal wall. so, it was, it was pretty devastating in there.”
He wants patients to know this accident will not cause any delays in receiving their test results and that Starmount is still open for business, just working next door.
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