You never know when or where a motor vehicle accident will take place. This past Tuesday, as many throughout the Pittsburgh area prepared to participate in the election by voting, it is doubtful that most were thinking about being involved in a car accident. For some people exercising their right to vote in Westmorland County however, they were forced to think about it when a vehicle ran into a polling place.

Authorities indicate that a vehicle crashed through a door at the Harrison City Volunteer Fire Department's social club. Officials believe that the individual who was driving that vehicle was trying to back away from the building but instead, mistakenly went forward into the structure. Miraculously the morning accident did not result in any injuries.

On a day where things became hectic at polling places without the addition of a car accident, things stayed very calm and under control at the Mill Street polling place. For safety reasons, individuals staffing the election made a change to the door that was used in voting and continued on with their days.

Had this occurred at a different polling place or during a different part of the day, things could have been much worse. Sometimes when a vehicle strikes a building it causes the entire structure to collapse. Fortunately that was not the case here and area residents were able to perform their civic duty with little hassle.

In the meantime, an investigation was launched into the incident by the local police department.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Driver crashes into Westmoreland County polling place," Liz Navratil, Nov. 6, 2012

• Our firm handles similar situations to the one discussed in this post. If you would like to learn more about our practice, please visit our Pennsylvania car accidents page.