I was driving a block behind this guy when he ran into the house at E Clay and 33rd. He walked out of his car on his own and said he wasn’t injured. Incredible since the entire porch fell on his car!
22 comments
Erin06/05/2016 at 9:28 AM
This is my neighbor’s house and I still don’t understand how the dude managed to drive that far up the sidewalk into the house. He had to have been going 40 mph or more. There is a massive hole in the brick foundation of the house. It’s really sad, they had just recently been doing improvements to that porch too.
@Jennifer, was the guy drunk? I spoke to the homeowner and he said the guy seemed a little out of it and that there may have been another car involved?
Glad no one was hurt, and that the house itself didn’t suffer damage.
The city will have to come in to say if the house is structurally sound to live in since one person said there is a hole in the foundation. The entire roof, which looks like it was a wrap-around, will have to be rebuilt and NOT with a cheap copout substitute design but curved hipped.
Yeah, was this guy drunk to get that far up and into the house? Obviously not doing the 25-mph speed limit!
At the same time, if the car hit that one side of the porch, the whole thing should not have collapsed like that unless it was not structurally sound or up to code?
I see on the archived Google Maps street view that there were issues with this porch between 2009-2011. Not sure how those secure those repairs were done?
At #13. Judging by the relatively undamaged house, the roof was not held to the house particularly strongly. As soon as the two piers were taken out by the car, the columns fell away and the roof peeled off the house by it’s own weight. Stronger fasteners at the house connection might have mitigated that, but in most cases, old porches are simply nailed to the main structure.
The fact that the porch peeled away relatively easily is not surprising. Most would be surprised that these porches are only tacked to the house with some nails. Plus if the nails are original they’ve probably rusted through. That being said, no fastener is designed to withstand the impact from a car.
To answer a few of the questions: there wasn’t another car involved that I saw. (I guess it’s possible that this guy had to swerve to miss another car. But, if that’s the case, the other car didn’t stop at the scene.)
The driver didn’t seem drunk to me, but I didn’t speak directly to him. He did seem a little out of sorts, but he had just hit a house with his car, so that would be enough to make someone act a bit abnormally, I would think.
As I was getting out of my car, walking toward the accident, I was on the phone with 911, and another man walked up and went over to talk to the guy in the car. It took a minute or two, but the guy got out of his car on his own, and sat down on the curb and called someone. The 911 dispatcher connected me to an EMT and they kept me on the phone, asking a variety of questions until the first responders arrived, which was about 4-5 minutes after I called.
At one point, the driver could tell that the EMT on the phone was asking me if he was injured, at which point he looks over at me and emphatically stated, “I’m fine.” So, if a medical emergency had caused the wreck, he didn’t mention it to any of us who were standing there.
I didn’t stay around long enough to watch the EMT’s examine him, so I can’t tell you anymore about his physical condition.
I’m so sorry for the homeowners, and so glad no one was injured!
22 comments
This is my neighbor’s house and I still don’t understand how the dude managed to drive that far up the sidewalk into the house. He had to have been going 40 mph or more. There is a massive hole in the brick foundation of the house. It’s really sad, they had just recently been doing improvements to that porch too.
Unfortunately, this house is going to be condemned! Glad no one was hurt.
@Jennifer, was the guy drunk? I spoke to the homeowner and he said the guy seemed a little out of it and that there may have been another car involved?
Glad no one was hurt, and that the house itself didn’t suffer damage.
OMG! What about their house??
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One does not simply drive into a neighbor’s home and park.
Quite rude
And this is why if you have state minimums on your car insurance you should increase them because $20,000 isn’t going to fix that!
Good lord. How many bldg./car crashes have we had lately? Seriously, get a grip…
Michael Onsel liked this on Facebook.
Maybe the driver had a medical emergency??
The city will have to come in to say if the house is structurally sound to live in since one person said there is a hole in the foundation. The entire roof, which looks like it was a wrap-around, will have to be rebuilt and NOT with a cheap copout substitute design but curved hipped.
Yeah, was this guy drunk to get that far up and into the house? Obviously not doing the 25-mph speed limit!
At the same time, if the car hit that one side of the porch, the whole thing should not have collapsed like that unless it was not structurally sound or up to code?
That’s one title for an article.
I see on the archived Google Maps street view that there were issues with this porch between 2009-2011. Not sure how those secure those repairs were done?
At #13. Judging by the relatively undamaged house, the roof was not held to the house particularly strongly. As soon as the two piers were taken out by the car, the columns fell away and the roof peeled off the house by it’s own weight. Stronger fasteners at the house connection might have mitigated that, but in most cases, old porches are simply nailed to the main structure.
A couple more images taken last night from slightly different angles: http://imgur.com/a/WMxHu
Anonymous your comment is spot on. Changing Property Damage Liability from state minimum to $50,000 is about $20 per year.
Do we know which won yet?
The fact that the porch peeled away relatively easily is not surprising. Most would be surprised that these porches are only tacked to the house with some nails. Plus if the nails are original they’ve probably rusted through. That being said, no fastener is designed to withstand the impact from a car.
To answer a few of the questions: there wasn’t another car involved that I saw. (I guess it’s possible that this guy had to swerve to miss another car. But, if that’s the case, the other car didn’t stop at the scene.)
The driver didn’t seem drunk to me, but I didn’t speak directly to him. He did seem a little out of sorts, but he had just hit a house with his car, so that would be enough to make someone act a bit abnormally, I would think.
As I was getting out of my car, walking toward the accident, I was on the phone with 911, and another man walked up and went over to talk to the guy in the car. It took a minute or two, but the guy got out of his car on his own, and sat down on the curb and called someone. The 911 dispatcher connected me to an EMT and they kept me on the phone, asking a variety of questions until the first responders arrived, which was about 4-5 minutes after I called.
At one point, the driver could tell that the EMT on the phone was asking me if he was injured, at which point he looks over at me and emphatically stated, “I’m fine.” So, if a medical emergency had caused the wreck, he didn’t mention it to any of us who were standing there.
I didn’t stay around long enough to watch the EMT’s examine him, so I can’t tell you anymore about his physical condition.
I’m so sorry for the homeowners, and so glad no one was injured!
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😀