Vehicle crashes into Alberta

The vehicle, a red Toyota Camry Solara, caused damage to one dorm room’s outer wall

By Natalie Nemes

A vehicle crashed into the north side of Alberta Hall the evening of Friday, Sept. 15, destroying a window and damaging its brick exterior. An air conditioning unit on the outside of the building was also damaged. Several emergency response vehicles, including rescue squad and infrastructure collapse vehicles, responded to the scene, as well as police cars and at least one paramedic unit.

Residence Life staff and Public Safety officers were present, but members from both departments declined to comment on the night of the collision. Victor Juran, St. Catherine University director of Public Safety, clarified in a later interview that the accident occurred at approximately 8:58 p.m. Public Safety received two phone calls alerting them of the collision at approximately 9 p.m., and department staff arrived on the scene by 9:04 p.m. City of St. Paul emergency services also arrived shortly thereafter, at 9:07 p.m.

An incident report from the St. Paul Police Department indicated that officers were called at 8:58 p.m., the approximate time of the crash. The driver, who was learning how to drive and did not have a valid license, lost control of the vehicle and hit the building. The vehicle contained two other passengers; the front passenger suffered a minor head injury and was transported to a hospital.

The driver was not impaired at the time, and officers issued them a citation for driving without a license.

Aside from an immediate safety check, Public Safety deferred to St. Paul’s emergency response team as the “experts” on assessing safety, Juran said. He added, “Later on, Residence Life and Public Safety went around and checked on residents to just to kind of say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on.’”

Residence Life emailed residents at 10:09 p.m., reassuring students that the building was safe to occupy. “We have called the Department of Safety and Inspections to complete a final assessment of the building tonight,” the email read. “St. Paul Fire Department did two separate sweeps of the building and had a zero reading for any gas or carbon monoxide.” Residents were seen exiting and entering the building as normal.

At 12:10 a.m. on Saturday, Residence Life sent a follow-up email stating that the Department of Safety and Inspections “cleared [Alberta] for occupancy.” It added, “Out of an abundance of caution, we have relocated students from the impacted room and the rooms directly above the impacted room until repairs can be completed.”

The patched opening in Alberta’s outer wall.

Juran emphasized that “students are the first priority,” and said that one of his “immediate concerns” was getting “some kind of messaging out there to let students know what exactly is going on.”

The Department of Public Safety sent a final email to the entire campus community on Saturday at 6:02 p.m., updating non-residents on information included in prior Residence Life emails. It additionally informed the community that, “McGough Construction, which works with St. Kate’s, sealed the building’s opening.”

Emergency vehicles in the O’Shaughnessy parking lot on Friday evening. *Credit: Tara Harbo*

Mikayla Roper ‘26 (Fashion Merchandising) lives in Alberta and did not witness the accident, but left the building to survey the scene shortly thereafter. “We walked outside, and we ran into our RA [resident advisor] … and it hit her building,” Roper said.

Roper added that the student who occupies the affected apartment was not in their living space at the time and was unharmed. Juran confirmed this account.