Photos of the Day: Very Lucky Council Chambers Was Empty When Car Crashed through Wall

Monday's City Council meeting offered a glimpse into potential tragedy if Council Chambers had been occupied when . 

Department heads this week sat at folding tables, their usual desks destroyed by the flying bricks and steel. 

A boulder gouged a chunk of wood from the City Council dais, located all the way across the room from the crash. Two rows of seats in the audience had to be removed; other chairs are cut and scarred from the debris that rained on the room.

Ceiling tiles were destroyed as metal doors flew across the chambers, landing in the rows of seats.

Police estimate Daniel Grossman of Springfield Circle, 79, was going 50 mph when he slammed into City Council Chambers about 8 p.m.

If it had been Monday, the City Council meeting would have just started when the car plowed through the wall. The room is also used on Thursdays by the Planning Commission and on some Wednesdays by the Board of Zoning Appeals.

During the day, Mayor's Court is held there. 

Police say Grossman pulled out of the  and headed south on Westwood Drive, but was unable to negotiate the curve in the road and rammed into the building. He told police the Buick would not stop accelerating.

He was taken to Southwest General Health Center, but reportedly suffered only minor injuries.

The building is attached to the , located at the .

The building was renovated in 2010 as part of an expansion of the police station. 

It is often referred to as City Hall, but doesn't actually contain Strongsville's administrative offices, which are on Foltz Parkway.