photo by: Kim Callahan

Emergency crews respond after a car struck the Big Mill restaurant at Ninth and Mississippi streets on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.

Updated at 8:25 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 5

A driver and three customers were injured Friday evening after an SUV ran into a restaurant building at the intersection of Ninth and Mississippi streets, according to Lawrence police.

Crews were dispatched shortly after 8:30 p.m. Friday to Big Mill restaurant, 900 Mississippi St., for a report of a car striking a building, Lawrence police Sgt. Drew Fennelly said in an email to the Journal-World. At the scene, they found a white SUV had crashed into the northwest corner of the restaurant.

The driver of the SUV was taken to a regional trauma center with critical injuries, Fennelly said, and three customers inside the restaurant suffered moderate injuries but didn’t have to be taken to the hospital.

Later Friday night, Fennelly indicated that the driver was stable and his injuries were not believed to be critical at that time. Impairment is being investigated as a contributing factor to the crash, Fennelly said. Police initially had said two customers were injured.

Ninth Street, which police had closed from Indiana to Mississippi streets for several hours, had reopened as of midnight, except for the southernmost eastbound lane, which remained closed as of Saturday morning.

Fennelly said the building wasn’t structurally sound, and that Lawrence Police Department and Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical personnel helped clear customers out of the building.

photo by: Kim Callahan

Emergency crews respond after a car struck the Big Mill restaurant at Ninth and Mississippi streets on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.

photo by: Kim Callahan

Emergency crews respond after a car struck the Big Mill restaurant at Ninth and Mississippi streets on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.

photo by: Kim Callahan

Emergency crews respond after a car struck the Big Mill restaurant at Ninth and Mississippi streets on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Big Mill restaurant is pictured Saturday morning, Nov. 5, 2022, the night after a vehicle crashed into the building at the corner of Ninth and Mississippi streets.