October 19, 2004
Albany -- About 9 Tuesday morning the pickup truck lost control on Merritt Street. Investigators say the driver never hit the brakes and crashed through the wall of the home. A man sleeping in the next room was unhurt.
Minnie Ray Taylor was in her daughter's kitchen washing dishes when the truck hit. Taylor said "I thought it was lightning, but it was too heavy a sound. And I looked, and I said, well it's not raining."
Investigators say The 2001 Ford Pickup was going at least 45 miles per hour when the driver lost control, went across the yard and plowed through Jacqueline Johnson's bedroom wall.
She got home just as the wrecker pulled the truck away to show the destruction inside. "Oh my goodness."
The concrete block wall had a five foot wide hole in it. The bedroom was a total loss. Johnson said "It's completely destroyed, everything in there."
Johnson's son was asleep in the next bedroom. "That can be replaced. But if it had come into his bedroom where he was asleep at, I don't even want to think about it."
There were three men inside the pickup truck. The driver jumped out and took off. Taylor said "The man that was driving he ran." T
he two passengers stayed, and told Police they only know the driver as Mark.
Johnson is stunned by the damage to the home. "It's worse than I thought.." But glad that her son and mother are O.K.
Police are still looking for the driver of the truck. They plan to charge him with reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
posted at 3:45 PM by jimw@walb.com
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