Youngsville restaurant plans to reopen

Three days after a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and slammed into a Youngsville restaurant, the owner said she planned on fixing it up and reopening.

Pam Weatherford, who owns the Johnson's Farmers Market Restaurant on Park Avenue said workers were gutting the building, which she rents, today.

Marc Zabalas, 30, a driver for the Swift Transportation company, slammed his tractor trailer bearing a "Dollar General" logo into the home-cooking style restaurant. The truck made it almost to the rear bathrooms, narrowly missing the kitchen.

Pam Weatherford said work on the building would take at least three months.

Zabalas first knocked down a utility pole with a transformer, near the intersection of U.S. 1 Alternate and N.C. 96. The early morning crash knocked out power to the entire town.

Zabalas was taken to the hospital but did not suffer serious injury. No one was in the restaurant at the time.

"When is the restaurant ever empty on Tuesday morning?" asked Weatherford. "It was divine intervention."

Progress Energy employees worked through the day to restore power to the town. Franklin County schools released students of both Youngsville Elementary and Royal Elementary schools at 11:45 a.m. because of the power outage.

Kelly Johnson, the owner of the building, said that with the exception of the kitchen, the building will need to be entirely rebuilt. It once served as a gas station, a store, a furniture repair shop. Johnson bought the building in 2001 and converted it into a restaurant. She was renting it to Weatherford.