House evacuated after pickup truck fractures gas line
OAKLAND TWP — For the approximately two years she has lived along Chicora Road, Christie Hetes always felt nervous about how fast people drive around the bend where her duplex is located.
So aside from the shock of the huge “explosion” sound that woke her up at 3:55 a.m. Saturday, it was the angle of the crash and the direction the truck came from into her basement’s side that was most surprising to her.
“It blows my mind how he went between those poles and into the house,” Hetes said. “It always makes me nervous how fast people go through here.”
The two-story, two-family house at 530 Chicora Road had to be evacuated after a pickup truck crashed in between the two units of the duplex on its bottom floor.
Oneida Valley Volunteer Fire Department Chief Gary Wulff said the collision fractured a gas line and caved in part of the wall.
Hetes said gas filled up the house on the morning of the crash, and a person from the gas company told her the house could not be occupied until the line was fixed, which could take weeks. She said she has another place to stay in the interim, however.
Tire marks can be seen from the westbound lane of Chicora Road through a utility pole and into the side of the house, where the truck stopped. Hetes said the tracks make it look like the truck was airborne when it left the road, went into the neighboring yard and crossed into her home.
Robert Pfeifer, who was also at the house at the time, said vehicles have damaged the property before, noting that a row of mailboxes on the edge of the property has been hit by passing vehicles.
“The neighbors said this is the third or fifth time someone hit something,” Pfeifer said. “This is the first time someone actually hit the house.”
Hetes said she was relieved no one was injured in the crash — including the driver of the truck, who she ran to check on the during the early morning chaos.
Pfeifer said he saw state police take the driver away in handcuffs.
Crews were on scene for almost two hours to remove the truck.
