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CHINAGROVE — In slow motion, a car flew through the front door of Harry Reese’s home.
Just like in the movies, he said.
This morning, as Reese waited for the insurance adjusters to examine the remains of his living room, he retold how a three-vehicle accident on U.S. 29 ended with a car in his house around 5:30 Wednesday evening.
“I had walked down to the end of the driveway to pick up The Salisbury Post,” he said.
Reese went to his shop to read the paper when he heard the collision.
“Had I been in the house, in my usual spot in the living room, I would be up at Honeycutts (Funeral Home) right now,” Reese said.
Instead, Reese said the nice weather provoked him to sit outside in his shop at his home on N.C. 152 East.
When he heard the collision, he said he got up and looked to see what happened.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper D. H.Robinson’s report indicates Gary Coughenhour, of 1040 Sydney Drive, Salisbury, had a seizure and accelerated to 70 mph in the southbound lane of U.S. 29.
His Ford struck Darren Safrit’s Dodge pickup, pushing Safrit over the center line and into the path of Mary Baneseltine’s Dodge van.
Safrit, 47, of 220 Eastside Drive, and Baneseltine, 38, of 220 Mount Hope Church Road, came to rest in the northbound lane of U.S. 29.
Safrit and Baneseltine, along her passenger, Teresa Baneseltine, 88, of Baldwinsville, N.Y., suffered minor injuries.
Coughenhour’s vehicle went to the right of U.S. 29 and “across the field in front of the house,” Reese said.
“He hit the access road that goes above the hill, went airborne, hit the yard and bounced up and into the living room,” Reese said.
“There are no tire tracks coming into the yard or going out of the yard,” Reese said.
He described how the vehicle cleared the porch and went straight through the front door.
“I found the front door knocker on a splinter of wood,” Reese said.
“The wall is pushed three feet off the foundation and damaged two other walls,” he said. “A bulldozer is the next step.”
Everything in his living room was completely destroyed, except for the television, he said.
“I work for the telephone company, and I had an old cord board, and that was demolished. They don’t make those anymore,” he said.
“Personal artifacts, sofa, end tables, lamps, everything is just a pile in the side of the room,” he said.
Reese has lived in the home since 1978 and he said there have been numerous wrecks at that interchange.
“They are in the process of reworking the interchange right now, but that wouldn’t have stopped this,” he said.
Reese thanked the China Grove Fire and Police departments, the Highway Patrol and Emergency Medical Services workers, along with“at least 100 people” who came to his house to help him.
“We boarded up the interior so there wouldn’t be any water damage.” And they made sure electricity and gas supply to the home was turned off.
Reese said he has a place to stay but will probably rent an apartment while he puts his house back together.
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