Crash Into Studio Rattles Owner

By GEOFF FOX The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 24, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - On a typical weekend afternoon at Dance and Gymnastics Academy of Tampa, up to 30 children are at the studio for a birthday party or other celebration.

Fortunately, Susan Sisk's business on U.S. 41, just north of State Road 54, was vacant Sunday when a 1996 Chevrolet Lumina plowed into the lobby, where the impact scattered toys, business documents and millions of pieces of plate glass.

"The amazing thing is we run programs seven days a week, and this is one of a handful of weekends of the year that I'm not here on Sunday," said Sisk, who has been at the location 14 years.

"The front is a large lobby where we host big birthday parties. There's a long counter where [the driver] hit and a refrigerator. The kids run and play, and they mostly go to the counter for drinks. They're in and out constantly."

The single-vehicle wreck occurred about 1:35 p.m. Sunday, said Trooper Larry Coggins, a spokesman with the Florida Highway Patrol.

According to Coggins:

Kyparissia Politis, 76, was traveling north on U.S. 41, when she attempted to make a U-turn across from the studio. Politis accelerated as she turned south but lost control. She crossed the median and northbound lanes before crashing into the studio on the east side of U.S. 41.

Politis suffered minor injuries but refused medical treatment; she was charged with careless driving. George Politis, 80, her passenger and husband, was uninjured in the wreck.

"From [noon] to 2 p.m. is when we usually have a lobby full of kids," Sisk said. "They could have been in there singing 'Happy Birthday,' or I would have been behind the counter, and I'd be dead," Sisk said Monday afternoon.

Our "refrigerator was knocked over, and I could have been pinned beneath that, or it could have been me and my 9-month-old baby if this had happened on a weekday."

Workers used six studs to install a plywood barrier at the front of the building "so people can't just walk in there," Sisk said.

Classes at the studio were canceled Monday, but Sisk said the building can still be used.

"There's no danger to anybody being in the building," she said. "We're fortunate that it was just the lobby. We're setting up a makeshift lobby in the back of the building. We have two other entrances, so people can enter on the side, and we'll just block off the lobby."

Sisk said crashes on U.S. 41 near her studio aren't rare.

Still, "I was really shaken when I walked up and saw her car in that corner" of the building, she said. "Somebody was watching out for us."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.