A local business owner in southwest Boise is frustrated and concerned after a car crashed into his building on Friday night, causing extensive damage. This is not the first time that his business, Best Pest Control, has been hit by a car. In fact, it is the third time in the past few years.
The crash scene
The crash happened around 10:48 PM on Friday, October 8, 2023, at the intersection of E Columbia Road and S Five Mile Road. According to the owner of Best Pest Control, Jeremy Johnson, a driver failed to yield to a stop sign and plowed into the side of his building. The impact shattered the glass window, knocked down shelves and left a hole in the wall.
Johnson said he was not in the building at the time of the crash, but his pets were. Fortunately, they were not injured. However, he was devastated to see the damage to his business, especially to a wall with a mural of an A-10 aircraft that he painted himself.
“It’s a huge blow to my pride because I take a lot of pride in this,” Johnson said. “All the neighbors in this area love it, I feel like it promotes a lot of patriotism.”
Johnson said he hopes that insurance will cover the repair costs, but he will have to relocate his employees or move to another building while they fix up his business.
“It hurts your pride, because you put your heart and soul into something and you know that everybody loves it,” Johnson said. “It does hurt your pride, but at the end of the day, you know – it’s just stuff. It’s just a building that can be repaired, it could have been a lot worse. I didn’t have any employees in the building at the time.”
A recurring problem
Johnson said this is not the first time that a car has crashed into his building. He said it has happened at least three times before, and he believes that the area is not well lit and that drivers are not familiar with the intersection.
“Columbia T-bones into Five Mile right into my shop – I mean my shop is 30 feet off the road. And if someone doesn’t see that stop sign, it’s a real problem. If you’ve driven in this area at night it is really dark,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he placed rocks down to try and stop cars from crashing into the building, but they did not prevent Friday night’s crash. He also said that a nearby pole has been hit multiple times by cars.
He said he is hoping for a solution from the authorities to make the area safer for drivers and pedestrians.
“There’s just no lighting in this area, and people that aren’t familiar with it – if you’re not paying attention, you end up someplace you don’t want to be,” Johnson said. “It’s dangerous, we need some lights down here for sure – this whole area is not lit well.”
KTVB has reached out to ACHD to see if they are aware of the recurring crashes in that area. The department had not replied by the time of publication.
The source of information
The information for this article was obtained from the original report by KTVB, a local news channel in Boise, Idaho. KTVB also has a YouTube channel where they post videos of their news segments and podcasts. Their official website is ktvb.com, where they provide more news and weather updates for Idaho.
