PATUKIET, RI (WPRI) — Friday was a frustrating day for Clean Management, Inc. President Carlos Valencia. In Pawtucket, he woke up at 5am to a call from an employee saying he had an accident at the Weeden Street factory.
When he arrived, Valencia found that the fence at the entrance had been smashed and the front of one of his company’s vans had suffered severe front-end damage.
The culprit: A sedan speeding on the Moshassuck Valley Industrial Highway around 3:40 a.m.
The van hit fences and barriers outside his company, then briefly lifted off and hit a parked company van, pushing it into a nearby vehicle.
Valencia told 12 News: “It’s unbelievable the speed with which they got into the facility and not killed or injured themselves.”
Valencia said he was fed up with the constant street racing of cars on the road.
“As a result, I’m not even fixing the facade of my building anymore,” Valencia said. “We know it’s going to happen eventually.”
In fact, it has already happened.
In 2018, 12 News reported on a similar situation at Clean Management, Inc., where cameras caught vehicles crashing into Valencia’s business, damaging property and worrying employees.
“The window broke because he hit the back end of one of our vans, which lost control and hit the trailer and got stuck on the side of our building,” Tatiana Valencia, general manager of Clean Management, Inc. told 12 News at the time. .
Since then, Valencia said, they have installed additional security cameras and reinforced barriers around businesses in an attempt to protect their property.
He also spoke with the Pawtucket Police Department and the city, who he said were aware of the situation and helped install protective barriers.
But Valencia believes more needs to be done.
“They have to put something on the road to stop people from doing that,” Valencia said. “This is an ongoing situation. It’s not going to stop.”
Valencia told 12 News he wanted to make changes as soon as possible.
“Eventually, we will have fatalities at this intersection,” Valencia said. “It will happen.”
12 News reached out to the Pawtucket Police Department for more information about the Friday morning crash, but has yet to hear back.