Crime and Courts

San Diego's Tower Bar hit by a car — for the THIRD time!

By some miracle, nobody was seriously hurt by the white Prius, which was being chased by San Diego police when it crashed this week

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NBC 7’s Dave Summers spoke to the bar’s owner about the crash, and the history of collisions with his walls.

There are few more recognizable structures in San Diego than the Tower Bar — especially if you're a resident of City Heights or the nearby Fox Canyon neighborhood, where the business has been serving regulars for more than 90 years.

Sure, back then it was a drive-in soda fountain, but for years, it's been a bar-goers bar, and for the past decade at least, it's been a favorite of punk rockers and other neighborhood residents.

Sadly, the watering hole added to its history this week, when, on Wednesday afternoon, for the third time since it opened in 1932, it was struck by an out-of-control vehicle.

This time, the offender was a Toyota Prius on the wrong end of a police chase. According to Tower Bar owner Mick Rossler, the Prius slammed head-on into a Honda before it ricocheted into the club.

"So I was down the street and with the family, and the bartender called me," Rossler told NBC 7 on Friday. "She sounded kind of pretty upset, and she said someone just crashed into the building. And it was like, right after it happened."

A shot of the Tower Bar on Wednesday night

A shot of the Tower Bar on Wednesday night (Mick Rossler)

The extremely genial Aussie said nobody was in the immediate area at 5 p.m. when the Toyota's front end came to a rest inside the bar.

"It was miraculous because it's usually where the people sit to smoke," Rossler said, referring to the bar's exterior. "But I don't know — just by a lot of luck, nobody was out there. "

The driver of the Prius ran a stop sign at the intersection of Polk and Winona avenues about eight blocks from the Tower Bar, according to San Diego police, and then failed to pull over when a traffic stop was initiated. Investigators said the driver was 19-year-old Ahmed Shire, and that he committed several other moving violations during the ensuing chase, including running red lights and driving at a high rate of speed. The incident ended, according to police, when the Prius crossed over the median, hit the Honda and collided with the Tower Bar.

Incredibly, not a single bottle was broken in the business, Rossler said, but the bar itself was pushed out six inches or so from the wall. It's possible Friday night's crowd might help push it back in place. who knows? Also lucky: The Honda driver told Rossler he was OK after the crash.

Rossler theorized that the initial collision prevented the vehicle from hitting the building with more force, which is exactly what happened in two earlier incidents when vehicles slammed into the bar.

"Well, the last time was in 2017 on a Saturday night, and I think it might have been a chase [also]", Rossler said. "And one of those big police SUVs crashed through the other side of the building. Also miraculously, they avoided hitting anyone other than the drummer who was playing at the time, but it could have been a lot worse."

In the previous incident, one patron was not so lucky.

"The first one was in '64," Rossler said. "That's the famous picture where a drunk driver hit somebody on the intersection at Euclid and crashed through the building, killing somebody that was sitting at the bar."

A shot of the car that hit the Tower Bar building in 1964

A shot of the car that hit the Tower Bar building in 1964 (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The good news for Rossler and the regulars at the Tower Bar: No major structural damage was done this time, which means that, since, closing for the evening on Wednesday night till structural engineers gave the all-clear, the bar has been back open, including on Friday night, when, Rossler said, DJ Czar will be serving up Finnish punk, and on Saturday, when live music is planned with local indie rockers Leavers and Magical Animals.

Shire, who was quickly arrested at the scene without incident, is being held on $50,000 bail and faces a single count of felony evading.

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