CARL SULLENBERGER / CHRONICLE
					A Lorain fireman stands by after a Cadillac ran into a corner of the Ruskan Law Building on Tuesday severing a natural gas line and closing Broadway until the area was safe.

LORAIN — Ted Jacobs, a well-known businessman and community activist, lost consciousness while driving Tuesday afternoon and slammed into the side of a Broadway law firm, causing firefighters to worry about a potentially explosive gas leak.

Lorain Assistant Fire Chief Randy Hupp said Jacobs’ late-model Cadillac hit the offices of Ronald Ruskan, Michael Barkas and Richard Zakarian about 2:15 p.m.

Ruskan was inside and said he heard the impact.

He knew “it was either an earthquake or somebody hit the building,” he said.

When he reached the Cadillac, he recognized his friend, 86-year-old Jacobs, behind the wheel. Ruskan said Jacobs was disoriented.

“He didn’t know what had happened,” Ruskan said. “He said he thought he might have fallen asleep.”

Ruskan said he was told by police that Jacobs’ Cadillac ricocheted off a steel beam near the entrance to the Morning Journal parking lot next door.

From there, the car bounced into Ruskan’s office and pounded through a concrete wall into a stairwell, crumpling but not breaking a steel gas line on the outside of the building.

An elbow joint split farther up the building’s facade, but Hupp said it harmlessly leaked gas up into the air before service to the building was turned off.

The 1600 block of Broadway was closed to traffic for an hour as a precaution, he said.

“We backed everybody off just in case of an explosion,” Hupp said. “It was lucky he didn’t break that gas line under his car. If it had ignited, it would have been bad.”

Jacobs was injured because his airbag didn’t deploy, Hupp said. He was taken to Community Regional Medical Center in Lorain, where a nursing supervisor said he was in fair condition in the emergency room Tuesday evening.

The crash happened just down the road from where Jacobs opened his women’s specialty clothing store in 1950. He ran that store and one in Midway Mall until 1991.

Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.

 

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---