-Submitted photo
Home on 1928 Sixth Ave. N. suffered significant damage when he was hit by a car on Saturday morning.
A car racing by police crashed into a house in Fort Dodge early Saturday morning.
Both passengers in the car were injured, but everyone in the house, including a small dog, was unharmed.
Fort Dodge Police Sergeant. Paul Samuelson said alcohol and speed were considered factors in the crash.
He said a “good Samaritan” who is not a police officer, helped detain the driver of the car after he tried to flee the scene of the accident.
The chain of events that led to the car crash into the house on 1928 Sixth Ave. N., started about 2 o’clock in the morning
-Submitted photo
An on-board truck is preparing to pull out a 2015 Toyota Camry that crashed into the house of 1928 Sixth Ave. N. early Saturday morning. The accident happened when the car was fleeing from the police. The two passengers in the car were injured. There are no casualties in the house.
According to Samuelson, a 2015 Toyota Camry was driving north on 15th Street on First Avenue South and hit the back of another vehicle traveling north.
Toyota bypassed the vehicle that had just hit and continued north on 15th Street.
Samuelson said Toyota was heading east on First Avenue North, with the car he hit following. Near First Avenue North and 15th Street, the driver of the crashed car saw a police officer and told the officer what had happened.
The officer spotted a Toyota and turned on the red and blue lights of the patrol car to try to stop it.
Toyota did not stop. Instead, he traveled east and then north on 20th Street. At the corner of 20th Street and Sixth Avenue North, the car failed to stop at a stop sign, crossed Sixth Avenue North and crashed into the house.
Samuelson said officers removed the driver from the car and handcuffed him. The driver tried to escape.
Then the good Samaritan stopped him “accompany him to earth,” Said Samuelson.
At the same time, when dealing with the driver, officers checked the occupants of the house.
“We were afraid of the worst” Said Samuelson. “By God’s grace, we didn’t have that.”
He said four people who were in the living room in front of the house left the room just before the car hit her.
The other passenger in the car was trapped in the front passenger seat and was removed by Fire Dodge firefighters. Both passengers in the car were transported to UnityPoint Health – Trinity Regional Medical Center.
The names of the driver and others involved have not been released as the crash remains under investigation. Samuelson said he believed a number of criminal charges would be filed.
He said the front of the house was destroyed and the foundation appeared to be damaged.
“There is no way to live in the house” he said.
The two-story house is owned by FDG Investments Inc., of Fort Dodge, according to online records from a Webster County appraiser. It was built in 1915.