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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Car crashes into Assiniboia home

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 04/17/2009 8:06 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Harold Patterson and his wife were sound asleep when a car on Ness Avenue ran over their neighbour's lawn, through their back fence and rammed into their home, coming within half a metre of their bed.

"We woke up with a loud bang and saw plaster on the floor," Patterson said this morning. The incident happened at about 2:30 a.m.

"I thought the roof had caved in. My wife turned on the bedroom light and the wall had caved in. My wife's side of the bed is two feet from the wall," said Patterson.

"I didn't realize what happened till I pulled the drapes back and could see the roof of a car."

He got a flashlight and saw that the driver, a 21-year-old man, was alive. The airbag had deployed but the man was covered in blood. They called 911 and got a towel for injured driver. It took emergency workers half an hour to extricate him from the four-door Ford Focus.

He was taken to hospital in stable condition and is facing impaired driving charges, police said.

The car hit the 10-inch concrete foundation of the stucco house and the force of the collision knocked over the furnace.

"It's a well-built house," said Patterson who was grateful he and his wife are both OK.

"We're fortunate in that way."

city.desk@freepress.mb.ca

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