NIAGARA FALLS – A car crashed into the corner of a two-story house at 1914 Hyde Park Blvd., struck the gas meter, a water meter and caused major damage to the structure at 11:04 p.m. Monday.
The driver, Samuel Rankin, 50, of Niagara Falls was charged with speeding and reckless driving. A female passenger in her mid-40s had left the scene before police arrived and was not charged. No injuries were reported.
Rankin told police he was coming up Cleveland Avenue and, when he tried to avoid an oncoming car, went up and over the curb. Police said there were no skid marks at the scene.
The house cannot be lived in until it is repaired, said Dennis Virtuoso, the city’s director of code enforcement.
He estimated damages at $20,000.
Virtuoso said the sedan appeared to have been coming at the house “pretty fast” due to the damage found at the scene.
“The whole front end of the car was three or four feet into the house,” he said. “When you hit a corner like that, the corners are the strongest point of the house, and he hit that and plowed right through it. The whole front end of the car was inside the living room.”
Virtuoso said two residents of the house, a woman and her son, were upstairs at the time but were not injured.
The Niagara Falls Fire Department also responded.
email: nfischer@buffnews.com
The driver, Samuel Rankin, 50, of Niagara Falls was charged with speeding and reckless driving. A female passenger in her mid-40s had left the scene before police arrived and was not charged. No injuries were reported.
Rankin told police he was coming up Cleveland Avenue and, when he tried to avoid an oncoming car, went up and over the curb. Police said there were no skid marks at the scene.
The house cannot be lived in until it is repaired, said Dennis Virtuoso, the city’s director of code enforcement.
He estimated damages at $20,000.
Virtuoso said the sedan appeared to have been coming at the house “pretty fast” due to the damage found at the scene.
“The whole front end of the car was three or four feet into the house,” he said. “When you hit a corner like that, the corners are the strongest point of the house, and he hit that and plowed right through it. The whole front end of the car was inside the living room.”
Virtuoso said two residents of the house, a woman and her son, were upstairs at the time but were not injured.
The Niagara Falls Fire Department also responded.
email: nfischer@buffnews.com