Truck Hits 2 Homes, Severing Gas Line & Forcing Evacuation
Posted June 6, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was anything but a quiet spring morning for residents in one Keele and Bloor neighbourhood. They were shocked awake by an unexpected visitor – a fuel truck that slammed into two homes. The accident happened around 7:30am on Glenlake Ave. but that wasn’t the end of it. The careening vehicle severed a gas main forcing authorities to temporarily evacuate some nearby residences.
“It was pretty surreal,” agrees Kris Abbott, who watched it all unfold. “I just happened to look up and there was a truck — I thought it looked like the man was hit by the truck, but I think he was running after the truck, and then it just smashed into the house and right away you could smell gas.”
For one unhappy homeowner, it was an eerie case of déjà vu. Incredibly, the same kind of accident happened at her house in 2001. “A week before 9/11 was the first crash,” recalls Evangeline Kubin. “When I smelt gas and the man in the street was yelling to me ‘get out, get out!’ I ran out on the street in my nightgown and my bare feet. And I started waking up the neighbours, too.”
Peter Kula’s home was the other one hit by the rolling buttress. His place got the worst of it. “Exterior walls damaged,” he laments. “Looks like they wiped out my air conditioning unit. I think the tree is dead. The big tree’s gone.” The intersection is located on top of a hill and it’s believed the parking brake may have failed, allowing the big rig to roll toward the homes. Police have charged both the trucking company and the driver, and a damage estimate is still pending.
But you can’t blame Evangeline and Peter if they start keeping a closer watch outside their windows.
