SUV travels off road, hits home's deck
CHICORA — In a favorite chair, Kathy Baker was watching TV in the living room at her home on North Main Street about 10:40 p.m. Monday. It was nearing bedtime.
But sleep would have to wait.
“All of a sudden I heard my windows shaking. My blinds shook,” the 70-year-old Baker recalled. “I heard this big, loud bang. I couldn't imagine what it was. I heard glass breaking. I thought someone was breaking into the basement.”
What she heard and felt, authorities said, was a runaway sport utility vehicle that traveled off the road and hit two support posts of a deck in back of her house.
The SUV continued over a hillside and into the woods behind the house where Baker has made her home for 30 years.
The driver, a 37-year-old Butler man, was not injured. The man's SUV was likely totaled.
Baker was shaken up but she was not hurt either. The deck was damaged, but her house was otherwise spared.
“It definitely was lucky,” said Cody Craig, chief of the Chicora Volunteer Fire Department, in assessing the aftermath. “It could have been a lot worse.”
State police subsequently arrested the driver for suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance.
Police said the suspected impaired driver was heading south around 10:40 p.m. when his vehicle crossed over the northbound lane and continued off the road. The vehicle traveled between two houses, emergency crews said, before hitting the wooden support posts for the deck at Baker's house.
The SUV, which was 40 feet from the road at that point, did not stop, authorities said. It went down a fairly steep hillside and into the woods, hitting several trees.
By the time it finally stopped, it was at least 250 feet off the road. The driver was able to get out of the damaged vehicle on his own.
Moments later, after gaining what she could of her shaken senses, still unaware of what had taken place just outside her house, Baker called a neighbor.
“I asked (the neighbor) if she could see anything,” Baker recounted. “'Didn't you see that car?'” the neighbor asked. “I said, 'What car?'” Baker replied.
The neighbor called 911 and went outside to inspect the damage. Baker called her son.
The driver appeared from the wreckage and walked his way to Baker's property. He declined an invitation to take a seat on her front porch, saying he was OK.
Emergency crews soon arrived. Butler Ambulance Service got there, but the driver refused treatment.
Police said the man eventually was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital for a blood test. Charges of driving under the influence of a controlled substance are pending.
Rumbaugh Towing was called, and a three-man crew eventually got the vehicle up over the hillside and back onto the road. But it took some time.
On Tuesday, Baker's son made his way to Home Depot to buy some two-by-fours to shore up her damaged deck. She plans to get it repaired as soon as possible.
“It's a mess,” she said.
