Workers boarded up windows and cleared away a pile of debris Thursday morning after a woman crashed her car into a dry cleaning business on Ventura Boulevard.
The woman suffered minor injuries in the crash that tore apart the car -- its engine block was separated from the rest of the vehicle -- and left the building's stone exterior crumbled on the sidewalk in the 19000 block of Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills. No customers were in the building at the time of the 1 a.m. crash.
"It's just horrible, the amount of damage," said business owner Bob Kassabian. "It could have been catastrophic, I don't know how many people could have been hurt, maybe even killed.
"That's No. 1, other than the driver of the car that hit the building. At least she'll be ok."
Kassabian arrived at the business early Thursday after firefighters called to report the damage. The car collided with one of two stone columns framing the entrance, causing it to collapse in a pile on the sidewalk.
Major repairs will be needed, but Kassabian said the business should reopen once the debris is cleared from the entrance.
"She must have been going at a really high rate of speed to cause this must damage," Kassabian said.
The driver was taken into custody. Booking information was not immediately available.
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