'It Sounded Like A Train Accident:' Witnesses Recall Car Slamming Into Biomat USA Plasma Center
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Ten employees and five donors were inside and an unknown number of people were outside of the Biomat USA Plasma Center on Western Avenue when a car slammed into the building on Saturday morning.
Witnesses who were fortunate to not get hit by the car say they saw it come soaring off the West End Bridge, causing the accident.
"Just panic," said Shane McDevitt. "I wasn't sure there were flames."
McDevitt was inside the building in Manchester on Saturday morning.
"The whole building started rumbling," he recalled. "My first thought was earthquake, I really didn't know what was going on."
McDevitt recalled turning his head and what he saw through a shower of debris.
"I realized 10 feet to the right of me there was a car inside of the building," he said.
When the dust settled, so did his reality.
"There was a girl sitting where the car ended up," he said. "A car came crashing through her back while she was sitting there."
Next thing he knew employees were rushing everyone outside as smoke was pouring from the gaping hole caused by the red Hyundai Santa Fe that slammed into the building.
That's also where Jason Bestz watched it happen.
"It sounded like a train accident," he said. "That's how loud it was. They had to be going 100 miles per hour to go through that wall. It went all the way to the back of the building."
Witnesses said the car was traveling very fast before the wreck and they could barely make out what kind of car it was.
With the entire front now peeled back and badly burned it's unrecognizable.