Santa Monica Building In Ruins After Driver Slams Into It: Report

SANTA MONICA, CA — A driver was hospitalized after crashing Thursday night into the first floor of a Santa Monica building, causing significant structural damage, according to multiple news media reports.

The Santa Monica Police Department told NBC 4 Los Angeles that the driver slammed into a business on the 2600 block of Santa Monica Boulevard after 11 p.m.

“I heard a car either driving too fast or accelerating wrong,” witness Frank White told KTLA. “I heard a crash, presumably that was it hitting a light pole. Then I sat up, and there was another crash, and it was going through the building.”

Video of the scene from ABC 7 News shows the building in ruins, with damage to the top and lower floors and fallen debris scattered into the street.

The driver was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, the news outlet reported.

The building houses a printing and web design business with an apartment on the top floor, FOX 11 News reported. No one was injured; however, the family living at the apartment was evacuated as a precaution.