Speeding Car Slams Into Hecht's

Friendship Heights Store Closes for a Day; Driver Detained

A gaping, burned hole, left, remains in the wall at the Hecht's store near the Friendship Heights Metro station after a speeding car went airborne at Wisconsin and Western avenues early yesterday in Chevy Chase. (Photos By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)

A speeding car smashed into the Hecht's store at Friendship Heights early yesterday after flipping over, becoming airborne and bursting into flames, forcing the department store to close for the day.

The car slammed into an elevator shaft at the store and caused some structural damage to the building, according to Pete Piringer, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.

By late yesterday afternoon, workers had addressed the county's safety concerns, and the store received approval from building inspectors and the fire marshal's office to reopen today, Piringer said.

Montgomery police said the incident began when a red 1997 Chevrolet Monte Carlo "was traveling at a high rate of speed along Military Road [and] the driver lost control of the vehicle" about 1 a.m.

The car struck a median strip and then flipped over in the middle of Wisconsin Avenue, a police statement said. The car then hit a curb, struck a sign and then a wall next to the Friendship Heights Metro escalator.

"The car became airborne and then burst into flames as it crashed into the wall of the Hecht's store," according to the police statement.

The statement said the driver, identified as Mitchell E. Coleman, 21, of the Riverdale Park area, escaped from the vehicle and attempted to board a southbound Metro bus, but District police detained him.

Police said the reason Coleman was driving at such a high rate of speed had not been determined.