Carpenters union boss OK after crash

A speeding car blew a stop sign Thursday afternoon, plowed into one vehicle, narrowly missed another and then crashed into a cement wall inside the front entrance of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer parking lot at 15th and Callowhill Sts.

Luckily, no one was hurt.

Just after 3 p.m. a late model red Buick LeSabre with Delaware tags sped westbound on Callowhill through the 15th street stop sign and hit a southbound Cadillac.

The out of control Buick missed a car exiting the parking lot by inches, plowed onto the sidewalk, ran over a parking sign, bounced off a cement wall, and hit the wall by the parking booth by just a few feet.

Edward Coryell, business manager of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Union, was driving the black Cadillac struck by the Buick. His air bag had exploded, his driver's door was wrecked, but he was OK, he said.

"Just a sore arm," he said.

Two men inside the Buick were also uninjured. Paramedics treated a woman in the Buick and released her at the scene.

Steve Nowelski, 62, had just arrived for his afternoon security guard shift when the Buick plowed towards his booth. The retired Philadelphia firefighter was sipping his coffee and had his head turned when the car struck the wall a few feet from him.

"I didn't have time to get scared," he said. "I'm lucky I didn't drop my coffee all over myself."

Police are investigating the accident.

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