Ballard softball facility boarded up following crash

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Plywood now covers the gaping holes created by a car crashing through the Ballard High School softball facility Sunday night.

No one was hurt and the building can be repaired.

The car missed the electrical panels, the heating and air conditioning system, and because school is out, any students.

Ballard High School’s softball coach Alan Jones is amazed people in the car weren’t killed.

He couldn’t believe his eyes when he arrived to the school Sunday night.

“I went, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe nobody died,’” Jones said.

He found the driver talking on a cell phone.

“The car was over there, totaled of course,” Jones said. “The young man, thank God he wasn’t hurt, he was on the phone talking to somebody, and I said ‘What were you thinking?’ And he said, ‘The brakes didn’t work, the car wouldn’t stop.’ Well no, cause you were going a hundred miles an hour.”

Now his softball facility has a temporary plywood façade. A contractor anchored a bent beam to the floor.

“We just redid all of this, for about $50,000, we just got done in October,” Jones said.

Jones said major electrical and mechanical systems are OK, but he’s more grateful the car didn’t hit a main beam.

“If he had hit one of the main beams, that probably would have cut that car in half,” Jones said.

Also, school was out for winter break.

“If school would have been in, and if it had been during the week, someone sitting right there pitching batting practice or catching a pitch could have easily got hit or killed,” Jones said.

Repairs are going out for bid. Jones said JCPS is discussing putting in barriers to help protect the facility.

“This isn’t the first time. Nobody’s ever hit the building, but kids come up here, do donuts in this parking lot and they think its cool,” Jones said.

Jones said witnesses told him the driver attends a private school, and that he was driving a rental car.

LMPD said an officer is still working on the crash report. No one was cited and the driver was released to his parents, police confirmed.

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