Car Crashes Into Mountain Road Home At High Speed, Occupants Unharmed But Driver Injured

A car violently crashed into a home on Mountain Road around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, veering off of the street and across the western edge of the Spaulding School property. The car came within 10 feet of a man walking his dog in his front yard, then slammed into an occupied home with such force that the building was condemned.

None of the six inhabitants of the home at 1005 Mountain Road, nor the man and his dog, were injured. The vehicle’s driver was seen breathing but unconscious and bleeding heavily at the scene before being transported for medical treatment.

Fred Lisk owns the two homes directly adjacent to Spaulding School and was very nearly struck by the out-of-control vehicle. He was about to bring his dog inside his home at 999 Mountain Road, having just picked up his pet, when he saw the car burst past him and smash into the side of 1005 Mountain Road.

“I just saw my life flash before my eyes,” he said.

He called the harrowing experience surreal, saying it felt like a dream.

Lisk said he heard no noise as the car passed within feet of him, traveling at a speed he estimated to be about 60 mph. The car was traveling with such force that it broke the home’s foundation on two sides and moved the entire building “about three feet” southwest of its original location.

“I’m still shaking,” Lisk said.

The home’s interior shook violently upon impact. Most of the contents of both floors fell to the ground.

Tammy and Michael Gidman lived on the second floor of the home and were inside at the time of the crash, as were the family of four that lived on the first floor.

“If I didn’t have anxiety before, I do now,” Tammy Gidman said as she was preparing to leave the property.

The American Red Cross is providing short-term assistance, including access to temporary housing and financial relief, to the six occupants.

Lisk’s dog would likely have been in the car’s path had he not picked it up seconds before the vehicle, which he said was likely a Jeep Grand Cherokee, tore through a gap between a large bush and thick tree at the edge of his property. The vehicle’s tracks, visible in the grass on Spaulding School’s front lawn, were nearly in a straight line to the home.

“It looked like he planned to go through there,” Lisk said, expressing the improbability of car’s indiscriminate path passing untouched through the small space, which is only about 10 feet wide.

Lisk opened the door of the car, which had penetrated about 5 feet into the building’s basement, to check on the driver. Lisk described the driver as a middle-aged man, breathing but visibly and obviously injured.

The front end of the car was completely destroyed, according to Lisk, and the driver’s head was about 1 foot from the remaining parts of the building.

Lisk praised the response time of Suffield’s emergency personnel, saying police arrived from their station at 911 Mountain Road as Michael Gidman was still on the phone with the station’s dispatcher.

“They were here in seconds,” Lisk said.

Michael Gidman summed up the sudden, incredibly jarring experience succinctly.

“It sucked,” he said.

Suffield police had not prepared an official report Wednesday night as officers were still investigating the scene and could not identify the driver.

Look for more information on the crash as it becomes available on Suffield Patch.