Brush with death from crash into business

BY STAN MADDUX

ATrail Creek business owner was still a bit unnerved a few days after a vehicle traveling off a highway crashed into his office very close to where he was seated.

“I feel lucky to be alive,” said Donnie Pawlik, owner of Amish Structures at 8555 W. U.S. 20 near Evergreen Plaza.

Pawlik, who lives in the Trail Creek area, said he was in his office Saturday, Feb. 4, doing things like paperwork when he heard a crash and got up from his desk to investigate.

His badly damaged extended cab pick-up truck was halfway inside his showroom with furniture and other belongings strewn on the floor.

The vehicle came to rest about 10 feet from where he was seated on the other side of an inside wall.

His truck parked outside was sent crashing through the brick exterior wall sideways from being struck by another vehicle.

“I realized I almost died,” said Pawlik when describing how he felt when he first saw the damage.

“He was very shaken up,” said

Coolspring Township Assistant Fire Chief Warren Smith, who was among the emergency responders at the scene.

Smith said a NIPSCO pole and gas meter were also taken out in the crash.

Trail Creek Police had still not released any details about the accident.

However, Pawlik said the westbound driver traveled over 200 feet off the four lane highway before the collision.

Smith also said more damage and even serious injury to Pawlik could have resulted had there not been a vehicle in the path of the driver to absorb the blow.

“It’s a good thing his truck was in the way because it probably could have killed him,” he said.

The company sells prefabricated garages, sheds and outdoor furniture made by the Amish in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Pawlik said the business he’s owned since 2014 also does concrete and excavating work.

In recognition of Black History Month, the Harbor Country Film Group will screen “Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored” at its meeting Saturday, Feb. 18, at the New Buffalo Township Library.

The meeting will begin at noon and is expected to last about two-and-a-half hours.

The 1995 release was directed by Tim Reid, and portrays life in the segregated south in the 1950s.

“This was an extremely challenging and hurtful time,” said Eve Moran, film group leader. “And yet, against it all, a tightly connected rural community exercised a special power. This film celebrates the close bonds of family, friends and church that sustained and nurtured a young boy growing up in Mississippi.”

In his 1995 review, Roger Ebert gave the film four stars.

The film group has temporarily moved its meetings to Saturday afternoons, in view of early darkness and possibly nasty winter weather. All are welcome at the meetings and there will be free popcorn for everyone.

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