'I should get a lotto ticket': Edmonton man uninjured after truck crashes through bedroom
An Edmonton man had a rude awakening Sunday morning when a truck crashed through his bedroom window, narrowly missing him as he was sleeping in bed.
Kyle Roach, 25, was dozing in a basement bedroom of his house at 163rd Street and 102nd Avenue. He was fast asleep when the black Toyota Tacoma came barreling through his window around 8 a.m.
"I was sleeping on the bed when rubble started falling on top of my head. So I got up, I was standing on the bed, quickly grabbed my phone and called 911 and talked with emergency," Roach said.
While on the phone, Roach saw the driver's bloodied face and realized he was trapped in his bedroom. Debris was blocking his doorway, shards of glass littered the floor, a wooden board landed on his pillow and gas was beginning to leak from the truck.
Roach, who lives in the house with his grandmother, said she didn't even realize a truck had hit the house.
"I had to wait for firemen to come by and open the door, put towels all over the floor so I could walk and get out. Otherwise I was trapped completely," he said. "It could have been a fire. I just needed to get out."
'Just in shock'
Firefighters arrived and helped clear a way out of the room. They broke the window of the truck to remove the driver, who was sent to hospital as a precaution.
The cause of the collision is under investigation, but police say the truck veered off 163rd street and they do not believe impairment was a factor.
Roach was left with a few scrapes and bruises, but he said if the truck had come crashing through the window an hour later, it could have been worse. Around 9 a.m., he might have been giving his grandmother her medication, or cooking something in the microwave on the other side of his room — directly in the truck's path.
"I feel very lucky. All the emergency [crews] said I should get a lotto ticket," Roach said.
"Later, when I was looking from the outside, it looked like concrete hit my wall where I was standing. I was very lucky that nothing really happened to me. I didn't get hit by any glass or anything like that, and the truck is pretty wedged in there."
Roach said emergency crews are trying to determine whether the structural integrity of the home was compromised before they remove the vehicle.
Looking at the mess left of his room, Roach is trying to figure out where to begin with the cleanup.
"I don't know where I'm going to be sleeping right now," he said. "I'm just in shock of being woken up and there's a truck on top of you."
