Out-of-control car causes damage in Charleroi

No one was injured as a driver struck a porch and nearly crashed into another home.

A car crashed into the porch of one home and nearly hit another Monday afternoon in Charleroi.

Charleroi Fire Chief Robert Whiten Jr. said the call came in around 2:30 p.m. The car, driven by a man who wasn’t identified, was traveling down Seventh Street when it left the roadway.

“Somehow, for some reason, the car veered off to the left and it went through a yard, though a neighbor’s porch, knocked out one of the supports, ran over another small embankment and came close to nearly hitting another house,” Whiten said.

The distance from where the car left the road to where it ended up was about 70 feet, Whiten said.

No one was injured in the accident, Whiten added. Firefighters helped the driver and stabilized the vehicle, then worked to insert a wood support beam on the porch where the car came crashing through.

No one was home when the vehicle struck the first house, but one man was present when it came to a rest near his home.

“The person’s house where the car came to a stop saw it happening,” Whiten said. “He just could not believe it. He saw it coming and thankfully it hit debris before taking out his wall.”

The vehicle had to be towed over the embankment by Bujanowski Towing. First responders only remained on scene for about an hour.

Whiten said the incident could have been much worse, especially due to the time of the accident and its proximity to a school bus stop.

“There is a busy bus stop right there at Sixth and Washington,” Whiten said. “If the kids were walking on Lincoln to home it could have been really, really bad.”

It’s not the first time and likely won’t be the last time first responders have to help at the scene of a vehicle into a structure.

Whiten said his department handles similar calls all the time and he doesn’t understand why.

“I have never seen a town respond to so many of these calls,” Whiten said. “Our response area has more vehicles into buildings than anywhere else. I just can’t figure it out. Most departments have structure fires, fire alarms, medical calls, you know, but we have a lot of cars into buildings.”

Firefighters were assisted on scene by Charleroi Regional Police, Rostraver-West Newton Emergency Services and Bujanowski Towing.

A cause for the crash hadn’t been determined as of press time.