Walls of plywood, piles of rubble and a fence post on the roof show the sheer force of a crash on Sooke Road Monday afternoon.
Just before 3 p.m. Monday a truck and trailer veered off 2700-block of Sooke Road and crashed into an unsuspecting family’s living room.
Jennifer Stevenson was in the room with her 10-year-old daughter at the time.
“I heard it coming, like a big gust of wind coming is what it sounded like, as a massive whooshing and I looked up and saw it coming right through the fence, and then it’s in the house, like a big bomb,” said Jennifer Stevenson, who rents the home with her husband and three children.
A photo Stevenson took just minutes after impact shows the truck directly up against a couch, which is where the family normally sits. Incredibly nobody was injured.
“Just really shaky and sort of just haven’t really processed this,” said Stevenson.
RCMP said the driver appears to have suffered a medical event. In a Facebook post, Shane Robertson said he was the driver and that he had an episode of “cough induced syncope”, which is like fainting from coughing too hard. He was taken to the hospital and says he isn’t sure if he’ll ever be able to get his license back.
Robertson said once he woke up after the crash he immediately went to see if anyone was hurt, fearing the worst.
Neighbour Eric Page was also afraid as he arrived on scene moments after the crash.
“I’m very happy no kids were walking home from Belmont [Secondary school] at the time because they do walk down this highway and of course where the truck went in and hit the house, that it didn’t hit the living room,” said Page.
The family eventually found its beloved 12-year-old cat Sapphire Tuesday afternoon. The cat had been missing for 24 hours after the crash.
The crash not only caused significant damage to the home, it damaged hydro and gas lines.
Stevenson’s family of five has been renting the place but because the damage is so extensive she says they will need to find a new rental, preferably one with three bedrooms.
Robertson says he intends to start a fundraiser to help them.
April Lawrence
