Overview
- State Police arrested 19-year-old Benjamin Robert Pimentel after his car crashed into School Street Foods in Lynnfield early Sunday and charged him with operating under the influence, failure to stop, negligent operation and other motor-vehicle offenses.
- Troopers say they were on a planned saturation patrol for dangerous driving on Route 1 when they saw a vehicle driving erratically at about 1:29 a.m., signaled the driver to stop, and the car then exited at the Salem Street ramp before striking the building.
- The crash put the car through the restaurant’s wall, ruptured water lines that flooded the interior and ruined inventory, and owners say the building sustained structural damage that will require contractor assessment.
- Owners reported the vehicle narrowly missed a gas line by inches, a detail that underscores the risk of a far worse outcome even though no one was injured in the incident.
- Pimentel is scheduled to be arraigned in Peabody District Court and investigators continue to probe the crash while the Lynnfield location remains closed indefinitely and the business’s newly opened Methuen site continues to operate.