A resident escaped injury Monday morning when a sport utility vehicle crashed into her home, but the driver was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries.
Haverhill Fire and Police were dispatched just before 8 a.m. to an Orchard Avenue condominium complex after receiving emergency 9-1-1 calls reporting the SUV was inside the building and still running and its driver unconscious. A GMC Yukon had crashed through the side of an end unit at 15L Orchard Ave., apparently after striking another vehicle. Neighbor Derek Scatamacchia told WHAV what he observed.
“I knew somebody hit the building so I came outside and saw a Tahoe in my building. Saw a Kia, which is my neighbor’s car, spun 180 degrees, smashed in the back,” he said.
Fire Chief Robert M. O’Brien said firefighters freed the unidentified driver, who was taken by Trinity EMS to Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill. Both the building inspector and officials from the water department were also summoned to the scene.
Scatamacchia said he heard his neighbor screaming and her two dogs barking. “Just my neighbor, Amanda, and the two dogs. They were upstairs at the time. Everybody and the dogs, everybody’s okay,” he said.
O’Brien confirmed firefighters had to help free the Boxer dogs. “The stairs were compromised so they brought ladder in the house to safely climb up to the second floor,” he explained.