• 12
  • August
    2011

"I was sleeping," Vernon Helton says, as Firehouse.com reports. "Next thing I know a bunch of debris is coming down on me pinning my leg." Helton, who lives on the ground floor of his apartment building, was pulled out by other residents and firefighters and came away with nothing but a scratch.

The man, Frank Billings, who appears to have caused the car wreck, was not as lucky. Billings was taken by helicopter to the University of Toledo Medical Center with serious injuries.

As it happened, Helton was at the end of an unlikely chain of events that began with the at-fault driver.

As Firehouse.com reports, Billings pulled out from a stop sign and into the path of an 18-wheeler. The 18-wheeler, in turn, hit Billings's car and ran off the road - directly into Helton's ground floor apartment where Helton lay sleeping.

'A Big Booming Sound, Like an Earthquake'

Resident Monica Kirby woke up to what she calls a "booming sound." She says, "I then thought it maybe was a tree into the house. I ran out of my door and saw a big semi through the building. I have a 19-month-old daughter. She was in bed with me sleeping. I was scared for my family and my neighbors."

The driver of the 18-wheeler was apparently unhurt, making him perhaps the second luckiest person involved in this accident - besides Helton, of course.

Source: Firehouse.com, "Semi Smashes Into Ohio Apartment Building," 08/12/11