13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Two injured when SUV hits Lawrence house

Two injured when SUV hits Lawrence house

Emily Longnecker/Eyewitness News

Lawrence - Two women were sent to the hospital after their SUV crashed into a Lawrence home Monday afternoon.

"There was gas leaking from the vehicle and the power lines down. I was trying to get everybody out of the vehicle," explained Jason Peak, who came upon the accident at 75th Street and Cobblestone Drive moments after it happened.

Peak said he saw a black Dodge Durango smashed into the side of a home with two women inside the SUV.

"I took a claw hammer, pried the door open, pulled one lady out, the driver out," said Peak.

"She said, 'I need to get my mom out. Please get my mom out,'" he said, describing the words of the female driver in her early twenties.

But Peak said the female passenger was trapped.

"She kept repeating to me, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry' And I said you don't have to tell me you're sorry. I'm just trying to make sure, you're ok," Peak added.

"There was gas leaking from the vehicle and power lines down so I was trying to get everybody out of the vehicle. At that time, the mother was trapped inside the vehicle in the passenger's side. I removed a set of false teeth that she had because she was choking on those, to clear her airway and raised her chin, just so she could breathe properly, and waited for the paramedics."

Peak said he thought the passenger was talking about what he claims to have witnessed at a Village Pantry a few miles down the road. Just a few minutes earlier, Peak said he saw a black Durango driving away without paying for gas. Peak said it was the same Durango that crashed into the house.

Lawrence Police said they would be checking surveillance tapes to see if that was the case.

Investigators said they weren't sure how fast the SUV was going before it crashed.

"Even looking at the skid marks, it's going to take our reconstructionists some time to calculate the skid marks, the ground gouges, and put a formula together before he gets the speed," said Lieutenant Stan Stephens with the Lawrence Police Department.

According to neighbors, the family who lived in the home struck by the Durango moved out about a month ago.

Both women in the Durango were taken to area hospitals, the passenger by helicopter.

"It was inevitable. I just hate that it had to end this way for them," said Peak of the accident

Police said the older woman had severe head trauma.