Car crashes into insurance office in east Vancouver

An insurance agency owner in east Vancouver said things could have been much worse when an SUV slammed through the front of his office Wednesday.

Wade Au owns the State Farm shop on Southeast 192nd Avenue near QFC.

He said on a typical day he has customers in a front conference room, an employee at a desk near the front and a few people waiting in the lobby.

That wasn’t the case when a Kia Rondo SUV driven by Mary Snider of Vancouver crashed through the front of the building around 9:30 a.m.

“It’s lovely nobody was hurt,” he said. “It was by the grace of God that we weren’t there at our usual times.”

Vancouver Fire Department’s Engine 9 responded to the crash. One employee at the office was taken to a local hospital in a private vehicle after the crash, said Capt. Dave James, a Vancouver fire spokesman.

Snider was uninjured after the crash. She said she blacked out before the crash but was going to buy dog food at a nearby pet supply store.

“The only thing wrong is it’s not my insurance company that I just hit,” she said.

The SUV was removed from the building shortly after.