Pickup strikes ambulance office

A man faces several charges after police said he drove his pickup truck through an intersection, across a parking lot and smashed into a Richmond Ambulance Authority headquarters building.

Juver Alfredi Cruz Machuca, 26, was examined at the scene by ambulance authority personnel before he was taken to VCU Medical Center and then the city lockup after the crash early yesterday morning.

Machuca was initially charged with reckless driving and hit-and-run, but an investigation was continuing. Police said alcohol appeared to have been a factor in the 1:03 a.m. crash.

No one was inside the ambulance authority's operations building at 2400 Hermitage Road at the time, said Lee Ann Baker, the authority's chief administrative officer.

The pickup smashed a door and an exterior cinder-block wall, but the force of the impact also moved several structural steel beams inside the operations building, which is one of two main structures at the site, Baker said.

The damage was so extensive that city building inspectors declared the wing where the crash occurred off-limits, meaning the authority could no longer use three offices for operations supervisors, two locker rooms, a computer lab and a break room, Baker said.

"We're making plans to move those people into offices over in the administration building for as long as it takes," she said.

Inspectors had yet to determine a damage cost estimate, she said.

Richmond police Capt. Linda Samuel said Machuca was apparently westbound on Overbrook Road and failed to stop at the Hermitage Road intersection, traveling instead across Hermitage and through the ambulance authority's front parking lot before crashing into the building.

Machuca jumped a nearby fence and tried to run away before electing to flag down police, Samuel said.

Contact Joe Macenka at (804) 649-6804 or .