BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) — A car slammed into a veterans memorial leaving extensive damage behind, now the City of Beech Grove is working on preventing it from happening again.

Aug. 14, the Beech Grove Police Department says 27-year-old Dylan Mosak was driving south on 13th Street near Churchman Avenue. According to police, he drove onto Sarah T. Bolton Park, struck a flagpole, and drove through the veterans memorial.

But police say he didn’t stop there.

They say Mosak then hit a tree, reversed, crashed into a house and a parked truck, with a 9-year-old child inside, before hitting another tree. Police arrested Mosak at the scene.

The crash damaged parts of the veterans memorial, including urns, a bench, a light fixture, flagpole, a memorial headstone, and a wall. A nearby home also sustained damage to its patio and side wall.

A person who lived at the home, who didn’t want to be on camera, said his pregnant girlfriend and toddler were just inches from where the car hit. The family is still shaken.

The family of the 9-year-old in the truck also did not want to be on camera, but said they are still processing what happened. Some witnesses confronted Mosak after the crash.

“Turns out, he was an impaired driver, and that was the cause of the accident on Thursday,” Beech Grove Mayor James Coffman said.

According to Coffman, this is not the first time a driver has had trouble navigating the curve from 13th Street onto Churchman Avenue . He says there have been three incidents in the same area over the past three years.

“Each of those were due to impaired driving. It’s tough because you can’t design a road for impaired driving. This curve is hard to maneuver, but we have drivers each and every day, so it’s very concerning to us as a city and something we’re going to have to address,” he said.

Coffman says the city is now reviewing what improvements can be made to protect both drivers and pedestrians, whether that means changes to infrastructure, lighting or other safety measures.

“A couple things we can do are additional signage, advisory speed limits, possibly a flashing alert light that says ‘Hey, curve ahead,’ or additional curbs and sidewalks that limit and keep cars from coming into the grass area or into the homes around here,” Coffman said.

Coffman and the city are working on plans to repair the memorial.

“We have people who have served for our city and for our country, and we owe it to them to honor them respectfully, so we have to make sure we fix that,” Coffman said.

The city is still getting an estimate on how much it will cost to fix the memorial as soon as possible.

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