SCHEREREVILLE, IL—A woman passed out while driving, causing her to drive completely through a vacant strip mall store before crashing into a Dress Barn wall. That's when a hairdresser and a retired firefighter ran to the smoking wreckage.
At 12:11 p.m. Friday, a 66-year-old woman had a medical emergency causing her to crash her Dodge Ram truck through a vacant store at 1525 U.S. 41, Unit C, Schererville police Cmdr. Jeff Cook said. The unit formerly housed a clothing store called Rue 21.
The truck continued all the way through the vacant store, crashing into a wall shared by Dress Barn.
Katy Kletnick, manager at the neighboring Sports Clips, was checking out a client at her haircuttery counter when they heard a loud noise.
"I looked up and saw a black truck jump the curb and hit the store front," Kletnick said. "My client and I rushed over and the truck was full of smoke."
Kletnick's client happened to be a retired firefighter, she said. They got the door open and the former firefighter turned off the truck engine and checked if the woman was injured. Knowing someone had called 9-1-1 and emergency vehicles were on their way, they stayed with the woman until police arrived.
Kletnick said a hairdresser at a nearby hair salon recognized the woman as a client and was able to contact her son at the scene. The woman was transported to Franciscan Health Dyer with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
"It was lucky it was a vacant store," Kletnick said. "At first I thought she went through the math tutoring business next door, and I was afraid because there's kids in there."
There were no other injuries and the damage has been estimated at $50,000, Cook said. The vehicle came to a rest after impact and didn't crash through the Dress Barn wall, he said.
After the hectic scene, Kletnich went back to work after calling her husband to tell him what happened.
"He asked why I ran to the crash and I said, 'I don't know, My instincts just kicked in to see if I can help,'" she said.
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