Photo: Fredrick Piccolo / fox13news.com
If you ever had the curiosity of seeing with your own eyes the kind of damage a half-ton pickup truck could cause, the video below should do. The incident happened on Thursday, at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota, Florida.
Airport authorities tell Fox 13 that it was around 3 o’clock in the morning when the truck, a previous-generation GMC Sierra 1500, came barreling through the wall, straight towards 2 employees minding their business behind a car-rental built-in counter. The 2 were lucky enough to hear the bang from the impact with the outside wall of the building, so they had time to duck behind the counter, which may as well have saved their life.
Fredrick Piccolo, president and chief executive officer of the airport, says for the same media outlet that they were behind the counter because the airport had had a late-night flight and they were still making some arrangements. He doesn’t know what may have caused the crash, but he estimates that the truck came through at almost 100 mph.
Surveillance footage from the airport shows the same truck speeding down the tarmac very close to the parked plane, before hitting the wall and going in through the baggage claim area. Prior to that, it had been spotted driving erratically on U.S. Highway 41, coming off and smashing through a perimeter fence.
Because at no point did the driver show signs of slowing down (not when he crashed through the fence or at the second impact, with the airport building wall), police are operating on the premise that the driver was unconscious or otherwise unaware of what was happening.
For the time being, though, they can’t talk to him to find out which it was. Juan Monsivis, 40, the driver, was rushed to the hospital after the crash, where he remains in critical condition.
Luckily, because of the late hour and a massive dose of sheer luck, no one else was injured. The car-rental employee closest to where the pickup came to a stop against the counter is said to be in shock, but was otherwise unhurt.
One of the baggage belts at the airport was taken out of order in the crash, but Piccolo guarantees everything will be back to normal by the time the Christmas rush starts.
Fredrick Piccolo, president and chief executive officer of the airport, says for the same media outlet that they were behind the counter because the airport had had a late-night flight and they were still making some arrangements. He doesn’t know what may have caused the crash, but he estimates that the truck came through at almost 100 mph.
Surveillance footage from the airport shows the same truck speeding down the tarmac very close to the parked plane, before hitting the wall and going in through the baggage claim area. Prior to that, it had been spotted driving erratically on U.S. Highway 41, coming off and smashing through a perimeter fence.
Because at no point did the driver show signs of slowing down (not when he crashed through the fence or at the second impact, with the airport building wall), police are operating on the premise that the driver was unconscious or otherwise unaware of what was happening.
For the time being, though, they can’t talk to him to find out which it was. Juan Monsivis, 40, the driver, was rushed to the hospital after the crash, where he remains in critical condition.
Luckily, because of the late hour and a massive dose of sheer luck, no one else was injured. The car-rental employee closest to where the pickup came to a stop against the counter is said to be in shock, but was otherwise unhurt.
One of the baggage belts at the airport was taken out of order in the crash, but Piccolo guarantees everything will be back to normal by the time the Christmas rush starts.
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