St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Bloomington on Sunday. (Photo by Michelle Jones)
By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Parishioners of a Bloomington church are counting their blessings after a Sunday morning crash that could have been much worse.
Bloomington Police say a 56-year-old Bloomington man had a medical event while he was driving a cargo van westbound on East Oakland Avenue. The van hit a power pole and crashed into the side of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church at 1920 E. Oakland Ave., causing substantial damage just after the first service at 8:30 a.m.
“A few moments either side of that time and it could have been a very real tragedy for your community,” Fr. Dave Halt said. “The good news is our damage is just the building. The building can be repaired. People are always most important.”
Halt said people normally would have been outside at the time, but were delayed as they met with a visiting pastor from Tanzania.
“I don’t use the term ‘miraculous’ very often to refer to events, but the fact that it occurred when it did occur and none of the members of St. Matthews, were there, several of them had just moved their vehicles which would have been in the path of the oncoming vehicle, that is miraculous,” Halt declared.
Police say the driver was taken to OSF St. Joseph Medical Center Hospital in Bloomington. No word on his condition, but police say his injuries aren’t considered life threatening.
The 10 a.m. service was held in the church parish hall.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
