By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
An angel came to the rescue of Dana and Robert Crawford’s South Fulton Street home Friday night.
A Ford Ranger pickup sailed through the couple’s front lawn skimming the top of azalea bushes before hitting the concrete angel, which weighs several hundred pounds and is almost the size of Dana Crawford.
The truck kept heading toward the couple’s porch but was stopped for good by a large crape myrtle.
After the pickup was towed away, Dana Crawford went looking for the angel and, with the help of others, found it lying under the crushed crape myrtle at least 20 feet from where it had been standing.
At first blush, it appeared the angel may have been in one piece, but Dana Crawford said she would know better about the angel’s condition ó and her porch ó in the light of day this morning.
The wayward pickup, involved in the 10:03 p.m. wreck with a Toyota Scion, also knocked over the street sign at South Fulton and West Thomas streets before heading into the Crawford’s yard.
The couple’s house is on the corner.
There were no reported injuries from the two vehicles. Salisbury Police were investigating the wreck.
Dana Crawford said she was walking from her home’s kitchen in the back when she heard the loud noise from the crash.
She first thought that her husband had fallen upstairs, and she yelled to determine whether he was all right. Bob Crawford already was heading downstairs.
“No,” he called back. “I think somebody just hit our house.”
The couple often sit on their front porch in the evenings.
They said something has to be done to slow traffic on South Fulton Street, which has a speed limit of 30 mph.
“It’s absolutely amazing there aren’t wrecks here constantly,” Bob Crawford said.
On Friday night, the couple felt fortunate their house didn’t suffer more damage than it did.
“The angel saved us,” Dana Crawford said.