Since February 2022, Columbus residents have noticed a peculiar uptick in the number of cars crashing into buildings in the city.
This phenomenon has become so frequent that an Instagram page named “Columbus Carikaze” was created last September to document these occurrences.
Run by Columbus native Paul Meara, the account has documented at least 45 incidents of cars crashing into buildings since 2022, with Meara maintaining a Google Docs page listing these events.
At least 8 incidents have occurred in the city since the beginning of the year, with the latest happening at Nini’s Barber Shop on West Henderson Street. According to Reddit user /u/Apprehensive_You2473, a BMW had crashed into the shop, albeit with minimal damage.
The first documented incident of the year occurred on Jan. 3 when a car crashed into the Vow Studio Salon on West 5th Avenue.
“Last night, a car drove up a hill – over a flight of stairs and crashed into our Grandview Salon,” said Sam Antics, writing on a Facebook post regarding the incident. “The entrance is blocked until further notice and we have 5 stylists who can’t access our space, tools, supplies etc. If you don’t know – no clients, no services, means no income for anyone in this building.”
Several Columbus residents have taken to poking fun at these incidents. “Sigh. Number of Days Without a Car into a Building: 0,” said Reddit user /u/ithastowarmup.
In another post regarding a car crashing into a Hilliard Dollar General, Reddit user /u/Pazi_Snajper said, “[H]ippity hoppity, someone’s Driver License is going chippity choppity.”
These incidents are not without their costs, however. At least 12 people were injured when a car crashed into an O’Charley’s restaurant in Reynoldsburg last September, though none received life-threatening injuries.
Data collected by the Storefront Safety Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing vehicle-to-building crashes, notes that 46% of crashes into buildings nationwide result in injury, with 8% of incidents resulting in fatalities.
Of the most frequent causes for these incidents, the Storefront Safety Council reports that 21% were caused by operator error, 20% by pedal error and 15% by driving under the influence.
A report released by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) notes that “[v]ehicle attacks most commonly take the form of vehicle ramming incidents” and that “[a]ccidental vehicle incidents can also pose a significant threat to people and property.”
CISA recommends that facility owners evaluate their property for any potential weaknesses to vehicle-borne attacks and implement the appropriate measures, both active and passive, to mitigate damage from vehicle incidents.
Citing an incident in April 2021 when an assailant rammed a sedan into U.S. Capitol grounds, CISA notes that “properly installed vehicle barriers can deter and/or deflect oncoming hostile vehicles,” adding that thanks to the Capitol’s wedge protection system, “no vehicle has successfully penetrated the U.S. Capitol grounds or building in the post-9/11 era.”
