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'It could have been a lot worse' says owner of house struck by car

No one in the house was injured during the incident
Submitted photo Panoramic Drive Car in House
Submitted photo shows the scene of a collision involving a car and a house on Panoramic Drive.

A couple say their lives have been disrupted since their house in the P Patch was rammed by a car in a scary incident earlier this month.

Brenda Sawyer and Sandy MacDonald were asleep in the early morning hours on Apr. 5 when they heard a loud bang, shaking the entire house.

“We thought it was an explosion," said Sawyer. "It’s pretty traumatic — from a dead sleep to that, you don’t know what happened.”

When the couple were able to leave by the side door in a cloud of dust, they found a Dodge Nitro had crashed through the bricks where the front door used to be.

The car smashed through a closet at the front entrance and into the kitchen area, sending debris flying through much of the main floor of the house.

Police were already on scene taking the driver, a young woman, into custody by the time the couple got outside.

“I was talking to 911 and they were already here,” said MacDonald.

Cst. Sonny Spina of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service said officers had been notified prior to the crash that a suspected impaired driver was in the area and were already searching for the vehicle.

About 2:30 a.m., officers heard a loud crash in the still of the night and soon located the scene of the collision on Panoramic Drive.

Very quickly, said Spina, the officers that arrived on scene developed grounds to believe the driver may be intoxicated.

The driver was arrested at the scene and given a demand for a breath sample, said Spina. 

“She was then taken to the (police) station and she began to physically resist the officers. She also refused to provide a breath sample,” said Spina.

The couple spent the first few days in a hotel while workers and an engineer ensured the house was safe to stay in.

The front entrance is currently boarded off and a structural post was put in place until permanent repairs can be completed, a process Sawyer said will take months.

“People think it’s great, that we’re going to get a renovation. It’s not great, it’s very disruptive to your life and it’s very traumatic,” she said.

“You’d be surprised how much damage (was done), when you look at what everything costs to be repaired. Even just the brickwork alone,” Sawyer added.

MacDonald noted the proximity of the gas line to the area affected by the collision and said everyone involved were lucky it was not severed.

The couple wondered why the incident was not reported to media by police at the time of the incident and covered by the local media.

Spina said the non-reporting of the incident was an oversight, likely caused by the recent Townsend murder trial and the amount of police time that has been dedicated to it.

For the foreseeable future, the couple will have to live with the boarded-up gap where their front door used to be and will have to live in a hotel once again when the renovations begin.

“These are things that can be replaced, it could have been a lot worse,” said Sawyer.

Elizabeth Lucas, 20, was charged with 1 count of impaired driving, 1 count refusal to provide a breath sample and one count resisting arrest.


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Kenneth Armstrong

About the Author: Kenneth Armstrong

Kenneth Armstrong is a news reporter and photojournalist who regularly covers municipal government, business and politics and photographs events, sports and features.
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