SILOAM SPRINGS, Arkansas — The Siloam Springs Intermediate School (SSIS) will be closing their gym today after a truck ran off the road and crashed into the building overnight.
The Siloam Springs Police Department (SSPD) responded at approximately 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday (Jan. 5) morning and found a truck that had crashed into the school on Mount Olive St.
Police are still looking for the driver, who they say ran away after wrecking into the building.
The school closed the gym Tuesday morning to make sure there was no structural damage before letting students back inside. Engineers later determined the structure was still intact.
The damage includes a demolished sidewalk, two holes on the outside of the building and a hole through the gym wall, where classes are typically held. A fire hydrant was also struck.
SSIS Assistant Superintendent, Shane Patrick, said they could have been dealing with more than property damage.
“I’m sure that would’ve been really scary for our students to have something like this happen if they would’ve been in there. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case," said Patrick. “This is a really busy intersection in the mornings, and if something like this would’ve happened during those drop-off times, it could’ve been a really tragic situation. Luckily it happened early in the morning and nobody was around. Hopefully, we can get this repaired soon and resume classes in this part of our building.”
It could take about a month to get the wall repaired, but SSIS leaders said they will open the gym back up once a barrier is placed around the damage.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance footage and looking into leads on possible suspects.
If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact SSPD.
There were no injuries reported.
