IT SOUNDED ‘LIKE A HUGE EXPLOSION,’ NEIGHBOURS SAY
Charges pending after crash rocks neighbourhood
A Jeep Patriot SUV sits in a house at 4605 154th Ave. after crashing through its fenced backyard and kitchen early on Monday. No one in the two-storey home was injured. A 29-year-old man was arrested at the scene. Speed and alcohol were believed to be factors, and charges were pending. Police said the driver was not seriously injured.
Residents in northeast Edmonton say they woke up early Monday to what sounded like an explosion.
A Jeep Patriot SUV had crashed through a twostorey home, leaving a trail of debris.
The SUV drove the width of a block, crashing first through a wooden fence on 153rd Avenue and across a lawn.
It mounted an elevated back deck, shattered the glass patio doors and barrelled through the home’s kitchen, finally coming to rest in the garage facing 154th Avenue.
“It shook (our) whole house. It woke us up right away and it’s three doors down. That’s crazy,” said neighbour Marco Kruszynski.
Kruszynski said a family lives at the residence, including two or three children under the age of 10.
Inside the garage, the SUV was covered with plaster, glass, cement and pieces of pink insulation. The side wall of the home had buckled.
A pointed piece of the back fence flew so far it pierced the home’s vinyl siding on the second floor. Other pieces of the fence could be seen in the next-door neighbour’s yard.
Neighbour Chantel Barrios said she was shocked and speechless to see the destruction across the street. Her grandmother woke her up after hearing what sounded “like a huge explosion.”
“This isn’t something you hear about every day,” Barrios said.
Police say they attempted to stop a suspected impaired driver in the area of 50th Street and 146th Avenue at about 2:30 a.m. The driver was speeding and driving the wrong way, police say.
As police closed in, the man backed his SUV into a police cruiser and fled, travelling 120 to 150 kilometres per hour.
Police on the ground did not pursue, handing it off to the police Air-1 helicopter.
After the vehicle crashed into the house at 4605 154th Ave. in the Brintnell neighbourhood, Kruszynski said police were at the scene right away.
He saw the family come out looking distraught. They were not hurt.
The SUV’s driver was carried to an ambulance on a stretcher, he said.
Police say the 29-year-old driver was not seriously injured. Speed and alcohol were believed to be factors, and charges were pending.