A driver was lucky to escape unscathed after crashing his SUV into the basement of a house on Route 34 in Seymour Friday.
The crash happened just before 11 p.m. at 321 Roosevelt Drive (Route 34) across from the road’s intersection with Route 188, next to the Inn at Villa Bianca.
There are two houses next to each other on the property. They are both owned by the Daniels family. Luckily, the man who lives in the house that was hit was away on a fishing trip.
Nicole Daniels and Chris Mack were at the house next door watching television when they heard a “screeching sound, then a hit.”
Mack walked outside to see what happened. He saw nothing but darkness, so he went back inside.
Five minutes later he noticed an orange glow coming from the back of the house next door, which sits just a few feet from the Housatonic River.
“I thought it was fireworks or something on the river,” Mack said.
He went back outside and saw a dark-colored SUV on fire, wedged under the rear corner of the house (see video).
A few feet away there was a frantic-looking woman and a guy in his twenties who looked dazed.
“The woman was just some passerby, I think. He was the driver,” Mack said. “The kid was just out of it. He was standing right next to the car and the car was on fire. I pulled him away from it.”
Mack said the driver, who’s name was not available Friday, said he had just dropped a girl off from down the street.
Mack and Daniels said the man appeared to be intoxicated and admitted to having a few drinks.
“He was completely wasted,” said Mack, a paramedic in Bridgeport. “Usually when you’re in an accident you’re disoriented, but he was slurring his words and I could smell the odor coming off him. The officers made him go to the hospital.”
Seymour police are investigating.
Seymour Fire Department Chief Tom Tomasheski said when firefighters arrived they saw flames shooting from the SUV.
“The car started getting more involved and flames started licking up the back of the house. The flames went higher than the house until we got the hose line in there and did a quick knockdown.”
As of 12 a.m. Saturday, emergency officials were waiting for a building inspector to arrive on the scene.
The SUV — it looked like a Jeep Grand Cherokee or something similar — hit the home with force.
It took out half a wall on its way to getting wedged underneath the corner of the house.
“As you can see, it’s holding up the house,” Tomasheski said. “That car is wedged in there.”
Firefighters and neighbors said the driver did not appear to be injured.
“That whole driver’s compartment is caved in. He’s lucky he ducked,” Tomasheski said.
The property has been hit several times before by motorists blowing through the intersection of Route 34 and Route 188, the fire chief said.
“This is a notorious spot. Usually they hit a car in the driveway. The house has been hit several times, but this is probably the worst that we’ve seen,” Tomasheski said.
Both Great Hill and Citizen’s Engine responded to the scene, as did a rapid intervention team from Oxford.
