TEMPLE (March 16, 2009)—The Temple residence Inn will remain closed for four to six weeks while contractors repair the damage left behind by an 18-wheeler that veered off the interstate, went airborne and slammed into a first floor room.

The truck ended up about 30 feet inside the building.

The occupants of the room the truck hit were at breakfast at the time and were not injured.

Crews were able to pull first the trailer and then the rig’s badly damaged cab out of the building Friday.

After an inspection, officials say the three-story, 103-room hotel was structurally sound.

The hotel’s operators said Monday they’re waiting on an estimate on the damage and the cost of reconstruction.

Contractors secured building permits Monday morning and went to work on the building’s badly damaged first floor.

Twenty rooms were heavily damaged by water from burst pipes after the truck slammed into the building.

The truck, which, with its load of machine parts weighed from 60,000 to 90,000 pounds, left a gaping hole in the side of the building.

The rig left the highway Thursday morning, traveled down a sloped grassy median, crossed South General Bruce Drive and entered the north end of the parking lot of the Outdoor America Mall without hitting anyone or anything.

The truck then traveled up a sloped concrete embankment that’s 7 to 10 feet high and went airborne, traveling about 100 feet in the air 10 feet off the ground over a retaining pond and the parking lot before slamming into the hotel’s exterior wall.

The driver, Gustavo Rodriguez, 50, was trapped in the cab of the truck for more than an hour.

Only one guest required hospital treatment, a woman who was staying in a room across from the wall through which the truck crashed.

The Path The Truck Took