CAR PLOWS INTO BON AIR HOME

DRIVER THOUGHT FOOT WAS ON THE BRAKE

Rita Humelsine went shopping for bananas at Apples on North Abbe Road Friday afternoon after getting her hair done. While leaving the parking lot of Apples Humelsine said that she found herself at the south drive of Apples, an entrance that she was not familiar with. “I didn’t know if you could get out onto Abbe from there so I put on my brake, I assumed, and I just kept moving and it just went more and more and I kept pushing because I thought my foot was on the brake and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the car.”

When Humelsine left the Apples parking lot she struck a southbound car on Abbe then crossed Abbe entering the parking lot of Check Cashing. Humelsine, still thinking her foot was on the brake and not knowing why the car was still accelerating, jumped a curb and went through a yard, a fence and into the back of a home on Bon Air.

Captain Dave Igneczi of the Elyria Fire Department said that luck was on Humelsine’s side because as she drove through the yard she drove between trees and when she struck the back of the home she went through the patio doors. “I’m not sure how she did it but if you were going to hit the back of this house she did it at the right spot. Even with the extensive damage the house is still structurally sound.”

Firefighters entered the home from the front and made their way through the rubble and found Humelsine still in the front seat alert and talking to them. Captain Igneczi said that there were a couple initial dangers for Humelsine and the Firefighters. “When they first got inside of the home there was a natural gas leaking inside the house, we had electric lines that were energized that had been pulled out of the walls so there was a danger of electrocution." Once those dangers were dealt with Firefighters got into the car, lowered the front passenger side seat and removed Humelsine from the car. Humelsine refused any medical treatment at the scene or transport to the hospital.

Captain Igneczi said that the two homeowners were sitting in their living room at the time of the crash and the wife was about to go into the kitchen to make lunch. With just having their furnace worked on earlier this week they thought that the crash was actually the furnace exploding. Igneczi said that from the living room you could not see the car with all the debris. Everybody in the home, including the two dogs, were shaken up but doing well after the crash.


The driver of the car Humelsine struck on Abbe was taken to Elyria Memorial Hospital for evaluation but her injuries did not seem serious.

When asked what was going through her mind and the car made the trek through the yard and into the house Humelsine said, “You just kind of go numb. You can’t think of anything but why am I not stopping. You’re scared because you don’t know what is happening, you don’t know why you aren’t stopping.”

Until today, Humelsine said she has never had a car accident or a traffic ticket.

To see more photos from the scene: CLICK HERE