Truck Crashes Into Front Of Penn Hills Home, Plows Through Back Wall
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PENN HILLS (KDKA) – A truck crashed into the front of a Penn Hills home and plowed all the way through the back wall Thursday afternoon.
According to emergency dispatchers, the incident happened in the 100 block of Rosewood Drive around 2 p.m.
Aaron Tyler, of Tyler Landscaping, was driving his landscaping truck down a hill when he says his brakes went out.
"The brakes just went out. I was unable to stop. Unfortunately, I went through the house," Tyler said.
The truck appeared to go all the way through the home, knocking out part of the back wall.
The homeowners were not there at the time of the incident. Instead, Jerry and Annette Devinney were out celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary. It was an emotional scene when they arrived and saw the damage for the first time.
They say, had it not been for their anniversary, Annette would have been home when the crash happened.
"It looks like a war zone, the front of my house was gone," said Annette.
The impact was so great, the living room couch was thrown out of the back wall of the home and was left dangling over the yard.
"It's hanging out the back, smashed like an accordion," said Anna Marie Jennings, a relative.
The truck driver is just thankful to be alive.
"I thought I was gonna die, is what I thought. You know, we was going so fast, the impact was so strong. I thought that we weren't going to come out of it at all," Tyler said.
It took crews hours to get the truck out of the house. Family rallied around the couple as firefighters and a restoration company worked feverishly to gather what belongings could be salvaged and board up the massive hole.
The couple are animal lovers and we're so grateful, after hours of digging though rubble, that their two beloved cats were found.
"I don't know how they survived because they hang out right in the living room," said Annette.
According to police, Tyler Landscaping was involved in a similar incident in 2014. Five people were hurt at the Dairy Queen on Verona Road when the driver says he lost his brakes and plowed into the building.
Meanwhile, the couple's Penn Hills' home is likely going to have to be demolished after nearly two decades of memories. The Penn Hills code enforcement officer is likely to order the structure torn down.