A car crash in a Suffolk County neighborhood turned into a frightening scene when one of the vehicles involved barreled off the road and slammed into a home. According to News 12, two people are recovering after the crash in Hauppauge, which left a house so badly damaged that the town deemed it too unsafe for anyone to be inside.
Officials have now explained what set the chain of events in motion. According to Suffolk County police, the crash started at around 7 o'clock the previous night when a 25-year-old driver from Port Jefferson Station suffered a medical episode and struck a car from behind while in the left turning lane of Route 347. The impact pushed the front car into the intersection, while the driver's own vehicle kept going rather than coming to a stop.
From there, the vehicle carved a destructive path through the neighborhood. Police say the car went south on Placestead Avenue, through the front lawn of a home at 99 South Placestead, narrowly missing it, then tore through two fences and a shed before finally slamming into the home next door at 30 Adrian Lane.
The house that took the brunt of the crash was left heavily damaged. Officials say the home sustained significant structural damage, including having its electrical system completely ripped out, the kind of destruction that turned an ordinary residential street into an active emergency scene late in the evening.
Despite the force of the crash, the people inside the home escaped unharmed. According to officials, no one inside the house was injured, a fortunate outcome given that the vehicle plowed all the way through the property, past fences and a shed, before coming to rest against the home itself.
The damage was severe enough to force the residents out of their home. A sign posted on the door indicates that the house is too unsafe to occupy for the time being, and officials said it was not yet clear when the people who live there would be able to return.
The two people who had been in the car were both hurt but are expected to recover. According to News 12, the driver and the passenger were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the significant damage left behind on Adrian Lane was still plainly visible from the road as crews worked to assess the aftermath. Suffolk County police said no charges have been filed.