ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla.-- 21-year-old William Hunter Southworth made his first appearance on DUI and reckless driving charges after police believe he drove his truck into the AshleGryre storefront. The crash marks the fourth time the store has been damaged from cars prompting the owner to continue her push to get something done for the safety of shoppers and her merchandise.
“We really just want to run a business and be here," said owner Robin Spence.
Holding back tears, owner Robin Spence graciously took time to talk with First Coast News after her store was plowed into by a truck early Monday morning. The result, a roughly 8-foot piece of plywood now covers the front of the building.
“We don’t want to leave our community, we don’t want to spend another six months on studying the marketing and the demographics and the build-outs we don’t want to do that.”
As glass stands in place of customers, she’s left with tough choices ahead as she estimates this latest crash to cost at least 250,000 thousand dollars just in damaged product.
“It begs the question about the safety of people. You don’t just ok because of this crash happening pack up and move, it’s not that easy, it’s not financially feasible, but it comes a time like this situation that I’m really going to have to measure that," Spence said.
The measure she’d like to see instead, barriers outside this complex.
Since these shops are on private property, change would have to come from property management. Following the third crash, in April Atlantic Beach Mayor Ellen Glasser sent this letter of suggestions from insurance companies to NShore LLC
Our calls and emails to NShore for comment on if they’re looking into safety measures weren’t returned.
In June, FDOT responded to a letter from Mayor Glasser saying their traffic division is reviewing crash stats, signage and pavement marking and that work would take six months to complete.
We’re waiting to hear the status of that study, until then Spence encourages customers to search from product online and at their Tampa location.
“Together we need to come up with a solution and we need to act on a solution and not wait for this to happen again," Spence said.
Spence expects it would take at least four months to get up and running again based on the response time following the three other crashes at the location.