Manatee County man pinned under truck after vehicle slams into home: FHP
Truck crashes into home
A man who was asleep in bed became was trapped underneath a pick-up truck after troopers say a driver ran a red light and slammed into a home on Tuesday morning in Manatee County. FOX 13’s Kimberly Kuizon reports.
SARASOTA, Fla. - A pickup truck barreled through a stop sign and crashed inside a Manatee County home early Tuesday morning, pinning a sleeping resident underneath the vehicle.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers confirmed the 62-year-old man miraculously escaped alive, despite the truck landing directly on his bed. He was taken to the hospital with injuries.
Manatee County crash
What we know:
A loud crash woke neighbor Robert Bohn just after midnight at the intersection of Tournament Boulevard and West Country Club Drive, near the Palm Aire Country Club.
Bohn rushed next door to find a Ford F-150 pickup truck inside his neighbor's bedroom with the 54-year-old driver still sitting in the vehicle. The 62-year-old homeowner was trapped underneath the truck, which landed directly on top of him while he was in bed.
"He was underneath the truck and the driver of the truck was sitting in the truck and both of them, my neighbor was definitely in shock somewhat. The driver was coherent," Bohn said.
Emergency crews pulled the homeowner alive from the wreckage and transported him to a local hospital.
Wreckage scene investigation
Dig deeper:
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the driver lives in the neighborhood and was not driving under the influence. Trooper Ken Watson noted that the driver must have either been distracted or fallen asleep while operating the motor vehicle.
"The driver must have either been distracted or fell asleep while operating that motor vehicle. Both are incredibly dangerous and this is one more thing that the patrol wants everyone to understand that getting behind the wheel whether you’re tired or if you’ve taken any type of medication or if you’re on your phone and not paying attention. This is the kind of event that can happen," Watson said.
Neighbors later boarded up the house, though they noted it will take significant work to repair the gaping hole left inside the structure. The driver faces charges for running the stop sign, and Watson said that additional charges are pending as the investigation continues.
"There will definitely be charges pending in regard to running the stop sign, and then, of course, as the investigation goes on, anything else that presents itself will be looked at," Watson said.
Cause under investigation
What we don't know:
Troopers have not yet confirmed the specific medical status of the homeowner remaining at the hospital, though initial reports indicated he had minor injuries.
Investigators are still combing through evidence to determine the exact reason the driver failed to stop at the intersection. It remains unclear what specific additional charges the driver will face beyond the initial traffic citation.
Neighborhood traffic safety
The backstory:
Neighbors said this intersection has a history of wrecks.
Bohn said that his own property has been hit in the past, and the victim had experienced another near-miss prior to Tuesday's crash. Following neighbor complaints years ago, they said reflective signs were installed at the intersection, but the truck driver went right through them. The victim had even personally installed wood posts in front of his windows, but the barrier failed to stop the truck.
Residents demand changes
What they're saying:
"It’s happened before. It wasn’t that shocking. I knew almost right away what it was," Bohn said.
Bohn ran to the house when the crash woke him up, saying, "I really felt, until I heard him respond to my voice, I thought he was going to be dead. Truck was on top of him."
Bohn expressed relief over the survival of his neighbor, adding, "It’s amazing that my neighbor is going to live."
Still, Bohn insisted that Manatee County must take action to protect the neighborhood.
"Put at least four yellow barriers up there in the front in the curb area. So if another car does that and a driver comes, they’re going to hit that and it will stop them," Bohn said.
State law enforcement officials reiterated the severe danger of the crash.
"We are going to do everything we can to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again, even by educating folks and letting them know when you get close to your home this is when crashes can happen. You begin to relax, you begin to not pay attention because you’re almost home," Watson said.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kimberly Kuizon from the Florida Highway Patrol, who provided official crash details through Trooper Ken Watson, as well as on-scene interviews with neighborhood resident Robert Bohn.