KINGSTON —Three elderly women were injured and two were transported to Harrison Medical Center, one by ambulance, according to North Kitsap Fire & Rescue spokeswoman Michelle Laboda.
The Chuckwagon Senior Luncheon in the Kingston Library and Community Center was sitting for lunch when a sedan crashed through a bottom-floor window April 16 at 12:02 p.m.
Neither of the women transported to Harrison is thought to have suffered life-threatening injury, Laboda said. The third woman, seated inside the building, was treated at the scene after she was hit by flying glass in the crash. The other eleven lunch guests denied treatment or transport.
The hood of the four-door car went into the senior center, which is housed below ground level.
Kitsap County’s Department of Community Development inspected the building. The center also holds the Kingston branch of the Kitsap Regional Library.
“They will need to check the structural integrity of the building,” said Kitsap Regional Library branch manager Tomi Whalen said.
Jeff Brody, director of community relations for the Kitsap Regional Library, sent an email Monday morning that the building was given the OK from the county, and will reopen Thursday on its regular schedule at 1 p.m.
“Kingston library patrons will continue to be able to pick up materials they have on hold at the Little Boston library, through Tuesday,” Brody said via email. “On Wednesday, those materials will be moved to Kingston and will be available at Kingston when the library reopens.”
Flossi Mulhair was among the group of people preparing for lunch when the car went through the window. Mulhair described the sound as a loud “boom” as the car went through the window.
The car’s two occupants remained inside the car which had apparently jumped a parking curb and knocked over a wrought-iron fence to become buried in the window up to its windshield.
Troopers from Washington State Patrol and deputies from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the incident. Iowa Avenue, between State Route 104 and NE 1st Street, was closed for about two hours.
The building remained closed until county officials said it is safe to enter.
Though no one could say for sure how the crash occurred; people discussing it afterward speculated the person driving the car pushed down on the gas instead of the brake. There is a parking lot outside the community center, on the same side of the building as the senior center.
