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Truck plows into business meeting, sends one person to hospital, leaves co-workers shocked

Posted at 1:15 PM, Apr 26, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-26 20:24:45-04

CLEVES, Ohio – It looked like a bomb had blown up in the middle of a meeting room. Seven people were lucky to be alive after a truck plowed into their business meeting Wednesday morning.

"It was absolutely traumatizing. No one knew what had happened, We had multiple co-workers who were injured, bleeding, "said Seth Cloran, President of Consolidated Analytical Systems, 201 S. Miami Ave.

The 9 a.m. crash sent one employee to the hospital and left all of them shocked.

“We saw the devastation of the room,” Cloran said. “We were all trying to look around, figure out who was hurt.

“We were trying to figure out what was happening in the truck, the engine was revving."

Several people were hit by the truck, Cloran said. All of them were sitting at a table when the truck came through the wall. 

"A person was about 3 feet from where the face of this window was. Luckily, the truck … hit the corner of the chair and shot him out of the chair to the opposite wall. And then the truck continued in hitting more individuals sitting on the opposite side of the table,” he said.

Donald Lengerich

The driver was “oblivious,” Cloran said.

“He had no idea what he had done. He just wanted to smoke his cigarette. He didn't know that he was inside of a building."

Officials said they believe the driver, 62-year-old Donald Lengerich, was intoxicated. 

Lengerich was impaired by alcohol when he hit the building, police said in court records.

He was charged with aggravated vehicular assault.

 A structural engineer examined the building and believes it is OK,  police said.

The name of the driver has not been released.

Consolidated Analytical Systems designs, builds and integrates monitoring systems for industries, according to its website.