It all played out just before 6.30PM Friday night in the 2400 block of Northwest 54th Street in Ballard.

Police say the force of the crash points out that speed was definitely a factor.

The owner of the building looked over the crash scene in disbelief.

George Miller tells KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Monique Ming Laven, “I’m glad I wasn't there when the guy came flying down here. There's no way I could've got out of the way.”

Just minutes before impact, Miller was standing right next to the maintenance shop of his Ballard Transfer Company.

The crash reduced a corner of it to rubble, crushed the flatbed, and killed the truck driver. Police say speed was obviously a factor

Miller points out, “I was standing right about where he hit the building.”

Miller's employees say they had seen this same truck tearing through the alley way the last three nights in a row.

George Miller’s son, David, said, “I think I've seen him before and he's kind of a young guy. He made a mistake.”

Police say at about 6:20PM, the driver, likely in his 30's, was speeding eastbound and slammed into the parked flatbed.

The force was so great, it propelled the flatbed into the cinder block maintenance shop. The driver was killed.

The crash broke a gas line to the building -- which forced firefighters to set up an exclusion zone.

First the gas, then power had to be cut off before removing the truck and driver more than three hours later.

The smell of gas lingered into the night, but it's what miller saw that sticks with him.

Miller says he's also happy that his mechanic had left for the day at about 3:30PM in the afternoon, otherwise he would have been inside of the shop.

The driver killed has not yet been identified.