A 58-year-old Manhattan man suffered a medical emergency behind the wheel of his Subaru Forester on the night of August 28 and drove straight through the exterior wall of the Midwest Dream Car Collection, a classic car museum in Manhattan, Kansas, tearing open the building and damaging several vehicles on the showroom floor.

Key Points

• The driver, identified by The Manhattan Mercury as 58-year-old John R. Smith, lost control of his Subaru Forester mid-medical episode and drove through the museum’s front entrance wall.
• Smith suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was driven to Via Christi hospital by his wife rather than by ambulance, according to the Mercury’s reporting.
• Riley County Police, EMS crews and the Manhattan Fire Department all responded, and firefighters from Station 3 built a temporary wall to secure the structure overnight, according to KOAM’s Joplin News First.
• No criminal investigation was opened. Museum officials and first responders attributed the crash entirely to the driver’s medical condition rather than impairment or recklessness.

What’s Affected

• The impact tore what visitor services coordinator Bradli Nowak described as “a giant gaping hole in the side of our building,” according to WIBW.
• Several classic cars on display were damaged badly enough that staff pulled them from the showroom floor for inspection. The museum has not released a model-by-model list of which vehicles were hit.
• Plaster and debris from the collapsed wall section scattered across the display area. Staff told local reporters that the museum’s security cameras captured the entire collision, though that footage has not been made public.
• The Route 66 exhibit, originally scheduled to close August 30, was extended through September 20 as the museum worked to recover the visitor traffic lost during the closure.

What Happens Next

The Midwest Dream Car Collection reopened to visitors on Friday, September 4, a little more than a week after the crash. Staff spent the closure cleaning dust and plaster debris off every vehicle in the building before letting the public back in, and community members reportedly offered to help with the cleanup effort once word of the crash spread locally.

What Visitors Should Know

• The museum is open again as of September 4, though some vehicles remain off the floor while damage is assessed.
• Riley County officials have not indicated any lasting structural concerns with the building beyond the section that was breached and has since been repaired.
• Anyone planning a visit around the Route 66 exhibit should note its run has been pushed back to September 20.

The incident is a reminder of how vulnerable ground-floor storefront museums and dealerships are to a single out-of-control vehicle, even when nothing criminal is involved. A driver’s sudden medical episode is one of the more common causes of low-speed structure strikes nationally, and it rarely comes with any warning for the people or property behind the glass.