Truck crashes 15 feet into Northeast Austin home

AUSTIN, Texas - A family in Northeast Austin is currently without a home after a truck crashed into it.

The impact was powerful enough to take out some support beams to the duplex. It happened Tuesday morning off Cameron Road just north of 183. 

“It went into the laundry room, the kitchen, into the back patio and the debris went into the living room,” Austin fire battalion chief Eddie Martinez said.

Debris littered the ground and some could even be found on the roof.

The person renting the duplex was there during the crash. While they did not want to be identified, they did say they were outside and ran for their life when they saw the truck hit the curb.

“Two of our units arrived assisted the people who were on scene nobody was hurt nobody inside the structure nor the driver was hurt,” said Martinez.

According to Martinez, the building itself took extensive damage with two support beams taken out, leaving a risk for it to collapse.

“We have a special operations team to handle stuff like this, they deal with structural collapse,” said Martinez.

Austin fire used metal posts to temporarily keep the duplex stable while they removed the truck.

“Initially when we came in, we put up three shores so it wouldn't fall when the car came out and those are our personal shores that we take to calls with us,” said Martinez.

Before leaving, crews installed wooden posts in place of the temporary metal ones.

“With what we've done the structure is stable. If we didn't do what we did to it now, it will continue to sag and depending on the weather, end up collapsing at least in that section of the house,” said Martinez.

What led the driver to crash in the first place is still unknown.

“A three-quarter-ton pick-up truck coming through the nearby intersection and going down the hill with the added momentum, they didn't have to be going super fast to get that far into the house,” said Martinez.

For now, the family once living in this unit said they will be staying with friends until they figure out their next step. The family in the other side of the duplex said they will still be living in their side of the unit.

APD is reviewing the case.