In more than 20 years as a volunteer firefighter, Chief Scott Smith has witnessed some pretty traumatic events and experienced his share of dangerous situations. But nothing like what happened to him and his 5-year-old son on Saturday.
Smith said he and son were sitting on the living room couch on Ridge Road in South Brunswick at about 4:30 p.m., when a compact car crashed into the front wall of the house a few feet from them, right where his son had just been playing on the floor.
“Where the car hit the house there’s kind of bay window, and there’s a chair right there that he had been playing in front of, and it sent that chair flying across the living room,” said Smith, 42, chief of the Monmouth Junction Volunteer Fire Department, named for that section of South Brunswick. “I’ve seen some things, yea, but I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
As freakish as the accident was — and as close a call for Smith and his son — it wasn’t the only time a car hit a house in South Brunswick on Saturday, said South Brunswick Deputy Police Chief James Ryan.
In an incident 40 minutes later that afternoon, Ryan said a 75-year-old man lost control and struck an air conditioning unit and support post on the back porch of a house across town on Andover Drive.
“He thought he was hitting the brake when he was hitting the gas,” Ryan said of the driver, adding that no one was injured in the 5:18 p.m. crash.
Ryan said the crash into the fire chief’s house happened at 4:38 p.m., after the 24-year-old driver of a Cooper Mini suffered a seizure, lost control and jumped the curb.
Fortunately, Smith said his son had just climbed up onto the couch with him when the car hit. He said the boy was shaken up, but not physically harmed.
“He didn’t quite know what happened right off the bat,” Smith said. “I was sitting between where he was and the car, and the first thing I did was check him to see how he was. Then I scooped him up and I grabbed my radio and called the police.”
Outside the house, Smith said he handed his son over to a neighbor and then went into first responder mode, checking on the driver of the Mini, who appeared to be unharmed by the impact.
Ryan said the driver was taken to Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center, where she was treated and released. He said both houses were inspected and deemed structurally sound. He said it was the first time in memory that two ca-house crashes occurred on the same day.
Police Chief Raymond Hayducka issued a statement following the crash into Smith’s house.
“We are extremely thankful that he and his son are okay,” Hayducka stated. “It is a miracle that no one was injured,” he said.
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com
