A car plowed into the front of King’s Richland Deli at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, hurting no one but leaving the business closed indefinitely.
The building on Route 40 in the Richland section of Buena Vista Township is owned by the township and leased to Dawn and Rich King, who were in the restaurant when it happened.
“I’m so glad it wasn’t during lunch,” Dawn King said. “Or breakfast. Every morning, we have a bunch of farmers come from 8:30 to 10:30 and sit in front of the window” where the car hit. But there were no customers in the store during the accident.
“People really could have gotten hurt,” she said.
State Police said Margaret Ferguson, 82, of Mays Landing was trying to park in front of the building, and somehow accelerated into the front of it. She was issued a summons for careless driving.
Mayor Sue Barber said the township is moving quickly to repair the building so it can reopen as quickly as possible.
“We had a structural engineer there yesterday,” she said Thursday. “And we had an emergency meeting last night. The couple that lease the deli from us, it’s their sole income.”
She said since it’s an emergency, the township will not have to go through an involved bid process, but will get bids from a couple of contractors and move forward quickly.
