ORANGE PARK, Fla. – An Orange Park family of four needs to find someplace else to live after a pickup truck hauling a trailer crashed into the family’s house Monday afternoon.
It happened about 1:15 p.m. on Loring Village Court, off Park Avenue. Video from Sky 4 shows both the truck and trailer entered the home, causing extensive damage. Photos from inside the house reveal the truck went through two walls before stopping at the back porch.
The driver told Orange Park police he was distracted when he drove into the cul-de-sac and kept going through the home. Investigators told News4Jax that the pickup was a company work truck.
Sky 4 flew over the home after the truck crashed through it.
The Santiago family -- a father, a mother and their two children -- was not home at the time, but the Orange Park Fire Department said the home was not safe for the family members to be in until repairs are made.
“It’s very hard because they just bought the home and it’s almost unbelievable that this happened to them,” family friend Marimar Vazquez told News4Jax on Monday. “She is a stay-at-home mom with her two kids, and she would have been here if I had not asked her out today."
A Clay County Fire and Rescue team shored up the home before wreckers removed the truck and the trailer.
The Clay County Fire Rescue Technical Rescue Team is assisting the Orange Park Fire Department with a motor vehicle accident involving a truck & trailer that crashed into a house at the 500 block of Loring Village Ct. Firefighters are shoring up the structure to remove the truck. pic.twitter.com/PIfzB0bcbc
— Clay County Fire Rescue (@ClayFireRescue) January 6, 2020
Despite what happened, Vazquez said, the family had no ill will toward the driver.
“We’re relieved that he’s OK,” Vazquez said.
News4Jax attempted to contact the company that owned the truck, but the call to the company had not been returned as of Monday evening.
As for the Santiagos, the family has insurance and is receiving help from the Red Cross.