After The Fall

Here's what the broken building looked like on Thursday morning. The cafe is open for business, the sidewalk is clear, and a fence has been placed around the rubble:

About 2:15 p.m., the Volvo was headed west on U Street, stopped at the 16th Street stop sign, when the car began making its way into the intersection, said police Sgt. Norm Leong.

The Icee truck, headed north on 16th Street, swerved to try to avoid the Volvo, but the vehicles collided, Leong said.

Together, they careened into the building at 2030 16th St.

It's too early to tell who was at fault, Leong said. However, generally speaking, a vehicle stopped at a stop sign has to "yield to the right of way … until it's safe to enter an intersection," he said.

Neither drugs nor alcohol appeared to play a role in the accident, Leong said.

The force of the impact caused the building to crumble because there were no steel beams in the walls, said city building inspector Josh Pino. Built in 1929, the structure was constructed with "unreinforced masonry," meaning the roof is about the only thing keeping the walls steady, he said.

Once the walls were disrupted by the truck, the roof caved, Pino explained.