SUV hits home as family dines
CRANBERRY TWP — Sunday evening was hot and sunny. Tom and Deborah Riccobelli were enjoying a dinner with family when an unexpected visitor arrived at their home on Pemberly Drive.
A Chevrolet SUV had accelerated in reverse and crashed into their house, going through a wall and ending up in their garage at around 6:55 p.m.
No one was hurt in the crash.
“We were inside eating dinner with our grandkids, and it sounded like a bomb went off,” Deborah Riccobelli said. “We opened our door to our garage, and there’s a car.”
According to Sgt. Chuck Mascellino of the Cranberry Police Department, the driver, a woman in her seventies, had pulled out in reverse from the residence across the street. The vehicle accelerated past the street, through the yard and into the garage through the wall.
“She hit a boulder, and I think she went airborne,” Deborah Riccobelli said.
They called an ambulance to have the woman checked out.
“They checked her out. She was shook up, she was scared, but she’s fine, which is the most important thing,” Riccobelli said. “We were all in the back so we didn’t get hurt. It just scared us. It was really loud.”
The SUV hit two cars that were in the garage, derailed the garage door and damaged equipment inside.
Township officers issued no citations in the crash, Mascellino said, and have made no official findings as to why the vehicle accelerated, whether by operator error or technical failure.
All three vehicles were towed from the property, and responders cleared the scene at about 8:45 p.m.
