Serena Martz said she was 14 or 15 years old when she helped her mother clean up blood from the front of McBride Station Bar and Grill after a driver crashed into the building.

The Penn Township pub has been in Serena Martz’s family since 1984. By now, she said she is familiar with the number of crashes sustained by the business; since taking ownership of the bar, she said three vehicles have smashed through its walls.

The building seems to be a “magnet for vehicles,” her husband, and co-owner Tim Martz said.

“If you’re coming up over the hill and let your steering wheel go, you’ll come straight into the building,” he said.

Built after Prohibition ended in 1934, the bar has been standing since long before Route 8. The space where its front parking lot used to be is now taken up by a southbound lane.

Now, there are too many crashes to count, Tim Martz said, and the owners seem to be at an impasse with the state Department of Transportation.

The owners said they contacted PennDOT multiple times about the possibility of installing guardrails to protect the business and its customers. The last time Tim Martz reached out to PennDOT was in July, he said.

“If they could put some guardrails, that would help tremendously,” Tim Martz said. “Or some caution signs — something like that.”

Any barriers put up by the bar would be considered encroaching on the state’s right of way, the Martzes said.

“All we want is some protection,” Serena Martz said.

According to PennDOT, its District Guide Rail Review Committee evaluated McBride Station’s location in the past, determining it does not meet the design criteria for the installation of guardrails.

A guardrail “is an obstruction which can cause considerable damage to a vehicle and injury to a motorist,” PennDOT said. It is installed only when comprehensive design criteria are met around the vertical height of the embankment, embankment slope and average daily traffic.

“Although we cannot place (a guardrail) to alleviate this concern, the property owner has the right to install an approved protective device on the property outside of the highway right of way,” PennDOT representatives said. “The Department is available to assist, upon request, in identifying the right of way location.”

In a seemingly catch-22 situation, placing a barrier outside the right of way, as PennDOT recommends, would not prevent future crashes, the Martzes said.

“The parts of our building that always get hit are on PennDOT’s right of way,” Serena Martz said. “We cannot do anything to any part around the building on the right of way.”

She described the conversations with PennDOT as a “standoff.”

“It’s not like we have a million dollars to move our building back,” Serena Martz said. “The only thing we can do to continue to feed our family is continue running our business in a dangerous location.”

Tim Martz noted that about two to three wrecks happen a year; within the span of roughly 15 years, he said McBride Station has seen three fatalities.

“It doesn’t make any sense that something can’t be done to protect the building and protect our customers inside,” Tim Martz said.

“It would also protect the drivers, if they could be guided back on Route 8,” Serena Martz added.

On Nov. 2, an 18-year-old driver drove into scaffolding put in place to complete repairs needed from an earlier wreck in June, when a box truck hit the bar.

Tim Martz said the scaffolding has since been rebuilt and taken down as repairs on the front side of the building have been completed.

When asked whether he and his wife were afraid of cleaning up after another crash, he answered that it wasn’t a matter of “if it will happen, it’s a matter of when it will happen.”

“It’s only a matter of time before one of us gets hurt,” Serene Martz said.

The owners were pulling out of the bar’s parking lot when the 18-year-old hit the scaffolding last week. The first thing they did was make sure everyone inside the car was unharmed, Tim Martz said.

“That girl had someone watching over her shoulder,” he said. “The scaffolding went over her passenger seat window … it missed her head by inches. A plank was sticking through her car.”

As they continue to communicate with PennDOT, hoping to implement some safety measures, Martz said they have lost a few regulars. While the business is at half-capacity remodeling its back porch, some customers are afraid to come back.

“We take it one day at a time,” Tim Martz said. “We try everything in our power to keep the place safe. There’s not much more I can do myself.”