Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
KENNETT STUDENTS HONORED FOR BRAVERY
Father and son escape injury after truck crashes into house
The noise was so loud, Sergio Balcazar thought a bomb had exploded.
Balcazar was watching TV in his living room with his 5-month old son at 6:08 p.m. March 7 when a 2005 Ford F-150 truck slammed into the side of his Kennett Square house, going straight through the bedroom, missing he and his son by a few yards.
“I heard a big boom, and it just lifted me right off the couch,” said Balcazar. “The sound was very loud.”
Balcazar’s wife, Kristina, was not home, but his other children, Brandon, Jacklyn and Kristopher, were upstairs.
“I first ran in to see if anyone was in (the bedroom),” Balcazar said. “I ran out and sawthe pickup truck in our house.”
Kennett Square Police Cpl.William Holdsworth said James Boub, 43, was driving his truck east on West South Street with his two young daughters in the truck when he apparently suffered a seizure as
he was approaching South Washington Street.
Holdsworth said Boub was enroute to his home when one of his daughters told his father that he should turn on Washington Street. But the truck never slowed down, took out a huge tree, brush, a fence, a fuse box, and plowed into the corner of the Balcazar house at 703 S. Washington St., causing major structural damage.
Kristina Balcazar said it was fortunate that Kristopher, 3, was taking a nap upstairs instead of in the bedroom.
“It really could have been a lot worse,” she said. “I’m glad everyone is OK.”
Sergio Balcazar checked on his other children to make sure they were not injured and then went out to the pickup truck.”
Immediately after the crash, four Kennett Middle School students, Alexxis Flores-Castaneda, Andy Lopez, Keiton Zavala and Patrick Lawler, who live nearby, rushed to the scene to render assistance.
“Once they got the little girls out, I sat down on the curb with them and ask them if they needed water and talked to them so they wouldn’t be as worried,” said Lawler, who lives next door and had taken the day off from school because he was sick. Lawler’s father called 911, and emergency crews responded to the scene in a matter of minutes.
Neighbors quickly arrived on the scene and gathered around the house.
“In 10 minutes, we had 500 people here,” Kristina Balcazar said. “One lady up the road has six kids and she brought them all with her to make sure everyone was OK. This is really a close-knit neighborhood.”
Boub and his daughters were taken to Christiana Hospital for observation. Holdsworth said if doctors determine a seizure occurred, they will report it to PennDOT to make a determination on Boub’s future driving status.
But the first responders were the four middle school students, and their quick action to assist at the scene did not go unnoticed by school administrators. They were honored last week by Jacob Moore, Kennett Middle School principal, and by Barry Tomasetti, Kennett Consolidated School superintendent.
“We are really proud of them for how they reacted in that critical moment,” Moore said. “We really focus a lot on teaching positive behaviors and creating an environment where exceptional behavior is the norm. I think whey are good boys and are well raised. It just proves we have outstanding kids here at Kennett Schools.”
Moore said the students demonstrated bravery.
“What they did made us all proud at Kennett,” he said. “This was just a small microcosm of the good things going on here. It’s another example of how our kids are doing great things in the community.”
Sisina Sirianni, who l ives on Washington Street, said she was impressed how the four boys reacted so quickly in the face of danger.
“We read about kids putting sewing needles in Halloween candy, but kids get a bad name today,” she said. “This shows that kids can do good. Most people are raised the right way to lend a helping hand.”
For the past three weeks, the Balcazar family has been living at the Fairfield Inn in Kennett. Kristina Balcazar said living in a hotel with four children has been challenging. But she said the Kennett school bus driver was “really nice.”
“For a few days, she picked (her kids)( up here at the hotel,” she said. “She asked me if therewas anything more she could do to help. She even called me the day after it happened.”
It still will be a few more days until the family can move back into the house, as insurance sorts out the damage.
“Nobody got hurt,” Sergio Balcazar said. “Material things, cars, money -all that comes and goes,” he said.
Sergio Balcazar said the situation could have been one of fate.
“I look at things in a positive way,” he said. “Last year, a branch fell on that house,” he said, pointing to a house across the street. “The year after that, that house caught fire,” he said, pointing to Lawler’s house. “So, I figure I was due.”