SUV crashes into family business in KCK’s Strawberry Hill: ‘Blew straight in’
As Filiberto Ramos drove into work last Thursday at the family’s upholstery business in Kansas City, Kansas, he planned what should have been an ordinary day in his head.
But as he pulled up close to the shop, he noticed glass and chairs strewn on the side outside. His first thought was that someone had tried to steal them.
Then, as he got closer, he saw more debris. The glass was blown out. Everything was gone. And there was a vehicle inside the building housing Ramos Upholstery.
“I was kind of like, ‘Wow,’” Ramos said. “I hope that person is okay.”
Kansas City, Kansas, police officers responded to the crash after receiving a call shortly after 9:15 a.m. Thursday, said Nancy Chartrand, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department.
A caller told dispatchers that a car had struck a building at the corner of Central Avenue and North Tremont Street in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood, and that the car was inside the business, Chartrand said.
Arriving officers found the driver, a man, alone inside the vehicle and were able to free him. He was taken to a hospital with critical injuries. No one else was injured in the crash.
There was no one inside the building at the time, and the SUV hadn’t hit any cars before crashing into the building, Chartrand said.
A preliminary investigation found that the car was headed east on Central Avenue and, just before Tremont Avenue, crossed into the westbound lane before crashing into the building.
A surveillance camera at Slap’s BBQ, which is across the street, captured the crash on video. Chartrand said the video is both sobering and amazing.
“It (the SUV) just blew straight in,” Chartrand said. “It didn’t hit the pillar there in the front, but flew straight into the side window and into the store.”
Chartrand said it was very lucky that more people weren’t injured or involved in the crash, saying there is not a room along that street for error, being it is a two-lane street bordered by businesses on both sides.
Police said the vehicle was going at a “pretty high speed” and Ramos estimated it was at least 80 mph.
The circumstances leading up to the crash, including the speed of the vehicle, are still under investigation. The cause has not been determined, but police are looking into whether the driver was impaired, having a medical event or was driving recklessly, among other possibilities, Chartrand said.
Ramos said the SUV went right through the shop’s main entrance and into the showroom area, where they display finished products.
“Unfortunately, there are customers’ furniture that got damaged, and they had a lot of sentimental value to them,” said Ramos, who added that some of the furniture had been passed down through generations. “But like I told them, we can fix whatever needs to be fixed and replace what needs to be replaced.”
The front of the building has been boarded up. Structurally, the building seems to be okay, Ramos said. An engineer checked it out, and it appears that it is sheetrock, plywood and glass in the front that needs to be replaced.
Ramos said he and his brother, Jorge Ramos, co-own the business, which has been in the family for three generations. A cousin, Juan Ramos, also works there. The shop normally opens at 10:30 a.m., so no one was inside at the time.
In addition to furniture, the shop provides upholstery services for commercial, restaurant, automotive, marine, and aviation clients.
The business has been at its current location for 14 years, and nothing like this has ever happened to them before. They have seen high-speed car chases and people speeding through the area, Ramos said.
They had been talking with other businesses about possibly installing speed bumps in the area, but they never went to the city to find out what was required.
On Tuesday, Ramos was at the shop, cleaning and dusting. He was hoping to have the shop back to work starting next week.
“In the upholstery world, like we say, ‘Upholsters never die,’” Ramos said. “We always recover.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 2:47 PM.
