SUV Crashes Into Former VNA Building

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By John Burton |
RED BANK — A mid-morning crash of an SUV into the former Red Bank home of Visiting Nurse Association Health Group was continuing to snarl traffic into the early afternoon.
A late model beige Chevrolet Tahoe, according to Red Bank police, traveling north on Riverside Avenue, ran into 176 Riverside Ave., a two-story structure located just south of the Route 35 traffic-signaled intersection. The crash occurred at approximately 10:20 a.m., according to police.
The vehicle crashed through a window area, with the vehicle’s front portion became lodged inside the structure.
According to Police Chief Darren McConnell, the SUV was being driven by an approximately 50-year-old male, accompanied by a female front-seat passenger in her 70s. The vehicle was registered to a Holmdel address. McConnell did not have their identities available.
The two were transported to Riverview Medical Center to be treated for head and neck injuries that McConnell labeled “non-life threatening.”
“It appears he just lost control of the vehicle,” McConnell said of the driver.
The car accident attracted an unusual amount of media attention, with NJ State Police and Univision helicopters hovering overhead, and news crews from News12, CBS, NBC and other news outlets on the scene.
The Middletown Emergency Services’ Special Services provided assistance and was bracing the building front facade to allow for the SUV to be removed, according to Red Bank Fire Marshal Stanley Sickels.
That portion of the building was unoccupied at the time of the crash, Sickels said.
The extent of the building’s damage was unknown at this point, he added.
Emergency vehicles parked out front of the location, resulting in blocking one northbound traffic lane, backing up traffic on the heavily traveled Riverside Avenue.
The location had been home to the Visiting Nurse Association until the organization relocated to Holmdel earlier this year.