A Gilpin man is accused of fleeing from the scene after crashing his girlfriend’s Lincoln SUV through a wall of the Quality Inn hotel in New Kensington in early February, causing $35,000 in damage.

The Feb. 11 crash was the second time in less than a year that a vehicle had struck the hotel on Tarentum Bridge Road.

Nicholas Enrico Timothy, 24, of the 500 block of Evergreen Road was charged by New Kensington police with misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and causing a crash resulting in property damage.

He also was issued three citations for failing to stop after the crash, careless driving and reckless driving.

Timothy surrendered to Arnold police later on the day of the crash, according to a criminal complaint.

He was released from custody and faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. on May 4, according to court records.

Investigators said Timothy admitted he was driving his girlfriends’ 2015 Lincoln MKZ when he crashed into the building about 12:45 a.m. and then left the scene.

Hotel management told the Tribune-Review the vehicle ended up in a storage room where chairs and banquet tables were found smashed against a locked door.

Police said hotel employees were working in the banquet room about 75 feet from where the SUV crashed.

Investigators used license plate information to contact Timothy’s girlfriend, who owns the SUV with her father, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, she told them, “He (Timothy) had my car.”

Only the rear 3 feet of the SUV remained outside the building after Timothy hopped a parking lot curb and crashed through the wall, police said.

The building was still structurally sound, and a tarp was placed over the hole that remained until repairs could be made.

A soldout show featuring Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra impersonators was able to proceed because the tables and chairs that were needed already were set out in the ballroom before the SUV crashed into the storage room and damaged the remaining ones.

The hotel gave police an estimate from a contractor to repair $35,000 in damage to the building.

On Feb. 20, 2022, a car drove into the same side of the hotel, sparking a fire after a natural gas line was damaged in the crash.

Quick action by firefighters prevented flames being fueled by the severed gas line from spreading through the hotel.

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