Unoccupied truck rolls down hill, strikes house

KINGSTON, N.Y. >> An unoccupied pickup rolled down a hill early Monday and struck a house on North Wilbur Avenue, according to a Kingston deputy fire chief.

Wayne Platte Jr. said the Kingston Fire Department was notified at 7:21 a.m. about a pickup striking the house at 3 N. Wilbur Ave., at the corner of Greenkill Avenue. He said the driver had been warming up the truck outside 197 Greenkill Ave. and apparently left it in neutral.

The driver was not inside the vehicle when it rolled, and no one was injured, Platte said.

The truck struck a onestory addition on the house, pushing in a wall, the deputy chief said. He said the impact did not compromise the systems inside the house and that it still was livable.

The driver of the truck, Jonathan Castillo, 33, was able to back the vehicle away from the house himself, Platte said.

Castillo, who lives at 197 Greenkill Ave., was ticketed for an unattended motor vehicle violation, police said.

Monday’s incident was the third in five days in which a vehicle crashed into a building in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

• On Saturday, a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Jamel Donaldson, 25, of Newburgh, slammed into Kirky’s Deli at 1922 U.S. Route 9W in Milton, causing significant damage to the structure. Donaldson, who apparently fell asleep at the wheel, was taken to a hospital for evaluation, and a customer in the deli suffered minor injuries.

• Last Thursday, a Newburgh man was pronounced dead at a hospital after the pickup he was driving struck a commercial building on Main Street in Fishkill. Police believe Don A. Tuangtuang, 62, suffered a medical emergency before the vehicle struck the front of a restaurant. There were no reports of anyone in the restaurant being injured.