Truck slams into Round Lake Beach house; no injuries reported

Pam Lucas was in her Round Lake Beach home Saturday night when she heard a loud boom that sounded like an explosion just outside.

That was jarring enough, but it was what she saw at her neighbor's house when she went to check what was happening that really surprised her.

"I didn't expect to see a car in the house," Lucas said of discovering a pickup truck sticking out of the home across the street. "You could see the tail end of his pickup truck. He was all the way in the kitchen."

The crash shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday left the home on the 1300 block of Brentwood Drive badly damaged, but none of its inhabitants were inside and no one was injured.

The unidentified male driver of the pickup was taken into custody, according to a report from ABC 7, but Round Lake Beach police did not confirm that Sunday.

Fire officials said the crash caused a natural gas leak and there were worries about the house collapsing, but everything has been shored up.

On Sunday morning, windows at the home were boarded up and the driveway was strewed with upended debris, including plastic snowmen, a planter and garbage containers.

Juan Salinas, who lives across the street, said he heard the rumbling of what he called a "Chevy full-sized pickup" and then spotted the truck heading north on the narrow street before hitting a pothole. It then turned around, hit a ditch, struck a neighbor's tree and then plunged full speed through a fence and into the kitchen area of his neighbor's home, he said.

Salinas said he ran to check on the home's residents while calling 911, then helped pull the driver out of the vehicle and across the street. He said he was concerned because it smelled like the truck was leaking gas.

Martha Pace said she heard a "boom" when the truck hit a tree in front of her home. On Sunday morning, her yard was marked by tire tracks, with what looked like a side view mirror resting on the grass,

"It sounded like an explosion," she said.

Lucas said a family with children lives in the home that was hit. Nobody answered the door there Sunday.

"Thank God they were out of the house," Lucas said. "That's what really panicked me, because I know she has kids."