September 20, 2017 - The Porter Street entrance of the Farmers State Bank in Center was the scene of a crash involving a cadillac.
At around 1:20pm on Wednesday, September 20, 2017 what appeared to be a brand new silver Cadillac CT6 driven by what appeared to be an elderly man, traveled in reverse first colliding with a stairway on a building across from the bank. The vehicle then traveled forward across Porter Street where it collided with a covering at the side of the bank.
The Cadillac continued through the rear parking lot of the bank and struck a wall in front of Luke Motley's parking space. Motley is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Farmers State Bank. Running up the wall were connections to a large generator for the bank. The driver then put the Cadillac into reverse once again and collided with the exterior wall of a dumb waiter that is within the bank. The vehicle finally came to a stop at that point with half of the dumb waiter no longer attached to the building.
ACE EMS arrived on scene with a multitude of law enforcement officials from the Center Police Department and Shelby County Sheriff's Department. The driver was not transported from the scene by ambulance. The crash remains under investigation by the Center Police Department.
While on scene, Mr. Motley explained the reason his car was not in its parking space is he had taken a late lunch.
According to Center Police Officer Brian Wright the driver of the Cadillac Ovias Michael Bailey, 65, of Center stated he pulled in off the Center square and once he was on Porter Street claims his accelerator was broken and got stuck. It appeared he tried to pull into the parking lot for Farmers State Bank and then backed into the stairs of a building across the street from the bank.
A witness stated the Cadillac then traveled into the back of the parking lot where it struck poles connected to a generator in the garage then backed up and struck the building. This was reported by the witness to have occurred three times until the vehicle shut of on the final rear collision.
Bailey was not reported to have received any injuries and he was transported from the scene by a family member. No citations or charges have been issued at this time.
