Jeep broadsides Uni. Mini-Mart

Hopkins senior Tom Digliani walked into University Mini-Mart Sunday night around 11 p.m. for a can of soda.

Fifteen seconds later, a blue Jeep Wrangler broadsided the front of the store and trapped students inside for more than 40 minutes.

Freshman Ashley Dorn's jeep careened into University Mini-Mart Sunday night after it was hit by a Ford Taurus on St. Paul Street.

Traveling westbound on 33rd Street, Dorn ran a red light at the intersection of 33rd and St. Paul Streets and collided with the southbound Taurus, according to Baltimore City Police Officer K.P. McGee with the Baltimore City Police. Her jeep then swerved onto the sidewalk, plowed into a lamppost and broadsided University Mini-Mart.

"The jeep struck the front right side of the Taurus," said Hopkins sophomore Mark Oppedisano, who witnessed the accident. "It then took out the [lamp] pole and stopped in front of the store."

Debris flew up into the windshield as the jeep plowed over the lamppost, a street sign and a trashcan.

"It was like, there was a pole, and then it was gone," Dorn said.

The lamppost was torn from the ground and broken into two pieces; the glass from its bulb scattered across the sidewalk and street. A dented black trash can was flung across the lamppost, with trash -- paper cups, wrappers and cigarette packages -- strewn behind the jeep.

The jeep's impact also caused the window display in the florist next door to collapse.

No injuries were reported, but the Jeep destroyed two newspaper stands and broke a store window, which will cost $300 to replace, according to storeowner Sam Hamideh.

Dorn was driving back to campus from her home in Philadelphia when the accident took place.

"I really am not sure what happened," she said. "I checked the light a couple of times to see that it was green. I remember when I got into the intersection, I looked right before I went into the intersection and didn't see because there were cars [parked] on St. Paul."

When Dorn saw traffic traveling down St. Paul Street, she sped up and swerved to get out of the intersection but still collided with the Ford Taurus.

The collision was heard as far away as McCoy Hall.

"There was one loud crash, followed by three bangs," Oppedisano said.

Suji Bang, Class of '97 and driver of the Taurus, said she had dropped off her sister after a trip to their home in New Jersey and was driving back to the Medical College of Virginia, where she is a medical student.

"I just got broadsided and next thing I saw was smoke," she said.

Dorn said the intersection was partially responsible for the collision.

"Someone suggested that ... I might have seen the green lane marker over the left lane and just kind of subconsciously thought, "The light is green, go,'" she said.

McGee said it's a blessing that no one was hurt and commended Dorn's avoidance of the collision.

"That was gifted driving the way she maneuvered," he said.

Students trapped inside University Mini-Mart could only marvel that no one was injured.

"We had a friend sitting there just a few minutes earlier," sophomore Janice Min said.

Hamideh said Dorn was lucky not to have hit someone.

"Thank God nobody got hurt," Hamideh said. "If somebody had walked out, she would have killed them.