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Posted by: DeputyFife

Published: 02/14/2007
'I can't believe this': Car goes airborne, hits home, injuries eluded

KATIE McMAHON/Staff photos - A gold Subaru Forester crashed through the dining room of Dan and Christine Wildeses' home at 688 Main St. in Rowley yesterday afternoon. Though there was considerable damage to the home, no one was injured.
By Stephen Tait
Staff Writer



ROWLEY - As four of her son's turkeys gobbled nearby and firefighters examined the scene, Christine Wildes stood among the debris of insulation, glass and plywood trying to comprehend how a gold station wagon flew through the air, crashed through her house and landed in her driveway.

And no one was hurt.
"I heard glass explode and heard just a huge bang," she said, describing the noise the noontime collision created. "I knew something bad had happened, but I didn't see anything in the (dining) room, and I called 911."
The noise Wildes heard was Richard Nelson, a Newburyport octogenarian, who was driving north on Route 1A when he lost control of his car, drove down an embankment, ran over a bush and up an incline that sent him airborne for about 40 feet or more where he hit the house, police said.
His trip didn't end there.
After piercing the house, Nelson's car continued through the rest of the yard, over a 5-foot-tall retaining wall and, finally, came to rest in the Wildes' driveway just inches from a row of trees.
"He hit the embankment right there," said Rowley Police Chief Kevin Barry, pointing toward a rising slope near the home, "and was airborne when he hit the house."
Barry then walked up the stairs to the home, held his arm up to about 4 feet and said, "He must been at least this high," when he hit. The figurines between the embankment and the home - small deer and other decorative statues - where the station wagon flew overhead, were all undisturbed. The speed limit on the road is 45 mph, but Barry could not say at the scene how fast Nelson was traveling.
Perhaps the most amazing part is no one was injured - not even Nelly, the 13-year-old dog owned by Nelson's son who was in the passenger seat during the accident.
Wildes was only several feet away from the section of the house when the car slammed into the home. Since she works from home, she said she often sits at the dining room table, situated right where most of the destruction occurred, as she sorts through bills and other paperwork.
The car destroyed that corner of the house, taking with it a large bay window, cracking the large brick chimney and exposing the interior of the Wildes' dining room and kitchen.
"It's devastating," she said. "I can't believe this."
Yesterday morning she already started to think about the snowstorm - expected to blanket the region with heavy, wet snow - and the gaping hole in her house.

"I just don't know how it is going to work," she said.
Meanwhile, Nelson waited outside of his wrecked car with Nelly. Nearby, the Wildes' four turkeys milled about, temporarily out of their pen.
Relatives and friends could not be reached to give Nelson a ride home so Rowley Police called Newbury Police for a ride.
Nelson said while driving down the road he thought he saw something on his right side and swerved to avoid it. Instead of hitting the brake, however, Nelson said he must have hit the gas instead. He said he didn't really remember the details of the crash, like going airborne into the house.
"I'm shaken up more than anything," he said, adding that it had been years since he was last in an accident. "Maybe my reactions just aren't as good as they use to be."
As far as his canine passenger goes, he said Nelly was shaken up but doing fine.
"It shook her up as much as it shook me up," Nelson said.
In the end, though, it was clear the owners of the house and Nelson were most pleased that there were no injuries.
When Dan Wildes arrived at his home - with police, firefighters and others milling around - he immediately sought out his wife and embraced her. Minutes later, after a quick survey of the extensive damage, he found Nelson, gave him a hug and said he was happy that his wife and Nelson were safe.
"Don't worry about that," he told Nelson, pointing to his home, "that can be fixed."

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