Car crashes into condo

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Joy Davis suffered only a small scratch to her right elbow when she was grazed by a car that crashed through her Terrace Heights condo Tuesday morning and ended up in her neighbor's garage.

The 66-year-old was watching the Weather Channel about 9 a.m. when the 2002 Mitsubishi Galant, traveling west on North Maple Avenue at high speed, blasted through a stop sign at an intersection and into her home in the 200 block of North 41st Street.

It traveled through her living room, kitchen and garage and into the neighbor's garage separated by a wall.

"I was sitting in my chair and all of a sudden this blast came through," Davis said. "I didn't know what it was, an explosion or something. Then I heard hissing and got out of there. It happened so fast -- it was a split second."

Splintered siding and pink insulation shrouded a large hole in her living room wall. From there, a path of wreckage pointed to the car in the neighboring garage.

Gas was turned off because of a damaged gas line, Yakima County sheriff's deputies said.

The driver, 31-year-old Nan Phan of Bothell, Wash., was taken to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital with cuts to her hand.

Deputies said they are investigating whether Phan may have been affected by prescription medication.

Fire officials at the scene said damage was at least $250,000.

It was the second incident involving a vehicle crashing into a Terrace Heights residence in six weeks. On May 12, a pickup rammed through a living room of a home in the 2400 block of Terrace Heights Drive. In that case, which state troopers believed may have been caused by a medical condition, a 56-year-old man had to be pulled out from under the front axle of the pickup.

On Tuesday, Davis' neighbor, Kevin Jorgensen, 26, said he was planning to mow his lawn when he heard the car crash into his garage and strike his 1996 Ford Explorer before coming to rest.

"I was opening my garage to get my mower, which is under the car right now," he said, noting that Tuesday was his birthday.

"So, this is my birthday present."

A tow truck pulled the car from Jorgensen's garage, where Davis found her couch, a comforter and her husband's tool box.

Davis and her husband, Chuck, moved from Seattle and into the condo less than two months ago. The couple has no family in the area, lacks renters insurance and planned to stay the night in a motel.

Joy Davis said the crash went through one area of her home where she kept pictures from the 1930s and other items she was putting into a scrapbook for her 98-year-old mother. She suspects the items are destroyed.

"This is a life-changing event for us, Hon," Chuck Davis said to his wife while watching the tow truck pull the car from the debris.

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