A car flipped and crashed into a Moreland Avenue auto repair shop late Sunday night, and the shop’s owners say it was not the first time.
Michael and Malik Parrish told Channel 2 Action News they have made repairs to their business, George Imports, more than a half-dozen times in the past few years after cars slammed into it. They said a stretch of Moreland Avenue near Key Road is notorious for street racing.
On Sunday, after they left work, the owners were alerted that a motion sensor was tripped. When they returned just after midnight, they found a Dodge Charger flipped on its side and in the middle of their shop.
The Charger took out several concrete barriers Michael Parrish said were installed as a safety measure.
“We try to slow stuff down and save workers ... we don’t want a guy to get killed actually making a living for his family,” he told the news station. “But the guys racing their cars don’t even care.”
Malik Parrish said they’ve had a hard time getting police to address the racing issue. Georgia Imports sits on the DeKalb County side of Moreland Avenue, while the other side of the road falls to Atlanta police jurisdiction.
Parrish said in the past, he was told “it’s not our jurisdiction. It’s in DeKalb, it’s in Atlanta, so nobody’s doing anything. Now look what we got — a mess.”
Michael Parrish said he called DeKalb County police twice Sunday night to report racing.
“Nobody came out,” he said.
The driver of the Charger, who has not been identified, was able to walk away from the crash, Channel 2 reported. He was cited by police and released.
The shop’s owners said they don’t know how fast the driver was going, but they don’t think it was the speed limit.
“He got ran off the road down here, that’s what he said,” Michael Parrish told Channel 2. “But running 100 mph, of course you’re gonna run off the road.”
