Senior 'thought the whole house was going' after fuel truck crashes through window
At first Ethel Wood thought the loud rumbling outside that shook her north-end Halifax home was a mighty windstorm blowing through.
Oh my heavens, thought the 86-year-old. Is there a hurricane out there?
Seconds later Wood heard a series of loud bangs as the rumbling — caused not by a storm, but an out-of-control fuel truck careening, backwards, down a hill — rushed toward the one-storey house.
The furnace oil delivery truck slammed into a parked car and jumped the curb before crashing through one of the home's front windows, just metres from where Wood was watching TV in her bedroom.
The damaged room contains Wood's dresser and desk.
"I could really have been in there, yes, and thank God I wasn't, I guess," Wood said Wednesday, a day after the Bluewave Energy Truck crashed into the home owned by one of her daughters.
The impact was so great, the front steps were ripped away from the house, the window was smashed and items were knocked over.
"When it hit, I thought the whole house was going," said Wood, who was unhurt.
Wood said the crash was scary but she never panicked.
She got up from her remote-controlled recliner and used her walker to get herself into the living room as quickly as she could.
Soon the next-door neighbours were at the door, wanting her to leave as they were worried the truck, which was still running, would explode and the house would catch fire.
Next, friends, emergency personnel and family arrived.
Soon "dozens of people" were in the house, but Wood — still wearing her robe — wasn't going anywhere.
"I wasn't a very happy person," she said about the confusion and chaos surrounding her.
The truck driver also showed up at her door and wouldn't leave until late in the evening after the giant hole in the house was boarded up.
Parkland Fuel Corp., Bluewave Energy's parent company, said the incident involved a contract driver.
Annie Cuerrier, Parkland's director of corporate communications, said in an email that all drivers, including contract drivers, hold the proper licence and are trained to follow company policies.
Those policies include having wheel chocks in place — wedges that prevent a vehicle from moving or rolling unintentionally.
She said it was too early to say whether the driver in question had chocks in place as the incident remains under investigation.
Cuerrier added the company has a "strong, industry-leading safety record."
Wood said the truck driver kept saying sorry and she accepted his apology.
"Accidents do happen, unfortunately," she said.
