SWAMPSCOTT — Police said a 44-year-old Salem man was speeding when he crashed into a Humphrey Street bakery on Sunday morning.
Police and firefighters responded to Newman’s Bakery, located at 252 Humphrey St., at 7:30 a.m. and found a single-car accident into the building.
Anthony Spagnuolo is facing charges of speeding 45 mph in a 25 mph zone and having an unregistered motor vehicle on the road way. He was cited after the accident, Swampscott Police Sgt. Tim Cassidy said.
The male passenger in the car suffered a minor arm injury.
Cassidy said the rainy weather could have possibly played a factor in the crash, but “45 in a 25 is a bit fast.”
Jessica Newman, co-owner of the family business that her parents opened 52 years ago, said the bakery happened to be closed to customers on Sunday so nobody was there at the time of the accident.
Newman, who owns the bakery with her brother, Bernard, said they found out about the crash from police, who suggested they come down and take a look at the damage.
“I was just worried that somebody might have gotten hurt and thank goodness nobody did,” Newman said. “You can replace buildings and cars and everything, but you can’t replace people. It’s a building and nobody got hurt and that’s the most important thing.”
Newman, a Swampscott resident, said she was happy no one was in the bakery when the car slammed into the building.
“I said it would have been scary for people if they were in there because (Sunday) is usually a very busy day at the bakery,” she said. “Thank goodness there was nobody there.”
Newman said the damage is to the right of the front door of the building. She said the car pretty much took out the foundation and the whole window, which is large, caved in. There is also damage to the interior of the building. The driver hit the building pretty hard, she added.
She said it’s unclear when the bakery will be open again following the accident as they are waiting to see how long it will take to shore up the building and fix the damage.
Max Kasper, the town’s building inspector, said he went to look over the damage on Sunday morning. He said the car went into the building right by the front door of Newman’s, and that there’s some significant structural damage, but didn’t have an estimate on the monetary damage.
He said crews from Boston Board Up Services were working on shoring up the building on Sunday — they put in a temporary post to replace the one that was taken out in the accident and were going to put in some plywood to board the place up. The bakery can’t open until the damage is fixed, he said.
“There’s some significant damage,” Kasper said. “The building does not need to be torn down, but there is damage that needs to be fixed.”
Despite the damage, Newman said she’s not upset that the accident may have been caused by a speeding driver.
“This stuff happens,” she said. “It’s an accident. Things happen. As usual, the fire department and police department were right there and helping and really doing a great job and they’re caring too. We have a great town.”