KANNAPOLIS — A woman escaped serious injury but was charged with reckless driving Sunday after she crashed into a house and knocked it off its foundation on Gary Avenue.

Christy Rae Poling, 24, of 201 W. Garden St., Landis, told police she was talking on a cellular phone as she drove east on Kimball Street in north Kannapolis around 4 p.m.

Instead of rounding a curve, she drove straight and hit a telephone pole guidewire and a street sign before slamming into the corner of a house at 1400 Gary Ave., a police report says.

Poling told police she was “talking on her cell phone and heard a thump” but, by then, couldn’t avoid the crash, the report says. And when she came to a stop, she couldn’t move.

“She didn’t have her seat belt on, and in the collision she ended up wedged between the dash and seat,” said Chief Larry Phillips of the Kannapolis Fire Department, which responded to the accident.

A Kannapolis engine company helped get Poling out. She was treated at NorthEast Medical Center for cuts to her forehead and chin and released.

A police report says her car sustained $5,000 damage. The house sustained $10,000 damage and was “knocked off its foundation,”the report says.

Jose Carmona, who lives at 1400 Gary Ave. with his family, said the house was empty when the crash occurred. The family had gone to the grocery store around 3 p.m.

When they returned around 6 p.m., his mother and brother were waiting for him. Although Poling’s car was gone, Carmona said he saw his brother’s face and knew something had happened.

“It’s big damage,” he said. “The walls in his daughter’s bedroom and a bathroom are cracked. Dishes are broken. ...everything that was on the walls is in the floor.”

He said his family will stay at the house while repairs are made

Awitness to the crash told police that Poling was driving at a “fairly quick pace.” Police estimated her speed at 40 mph when the crash occurred.

Police charged Poling with careless and reckless driving and failure to wear a seat belt.