A 56-year-old man is in critical condition and a 41-year-old woman is badly injured after an SUV crashed into a multifamily house in Meriden just before 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Emergency crews have condemned the house and residents from five families have been displaced just before the holidays.
Police said 56-year-old Michael Quigley was driving the SUV that crashed into a house at the corner of Broad and Wall streets Tuesday morning and he was unresponsive behind the wheel when emergency crews responded
Quigley had to be pulled from the car and LifeStar medical transport helicopter flew him to Hartford Hospital, where he is listed in critical condition.
The female passenger, 41-year-old Raya Odell, was in the front seat, where she was wearing a seatbelt, and tried to crawl out the back of the vehicle, police said.
She is also at Hartford Hospital in serious condition and has facial injuries, as well as internal injuries, police said.
Witnesses said it appeared the driver passed out.
Police said they are looking into whether he suffered some sort of medical emergency because there is no indication he applied the brakes, but vdeo from a nearvy building in unusable and police have not been able to speak with Quigley because of his injuries.
Quigley's SUV crashed into the laundry room and the impact blew out part of the foundation at the back of the house.
Residents who were home at the time of the crash were pretty shaken up.
"I heard my roommate screaming, I looked outside and there was literally a car in our laundry room," Shannara Hanna, of Meriden, said.
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Georgianna Stockton was in bed when the SUV slammed into the house and got trapped in her room until climbing over a shelf to get out.
“I woke up and I was like bounced out of bed," she said. "The door was sideways, the left side of the room the wall was like cracked. I didn’t know I thought it was a gas leak or something blew.”
Five families who live in the house have been displaced and have been places in hotels of other apartments. But, police said no one who lives in the building was hurt.
Residents were allowed to go into their homes and gather belongings. Now they are trying to figure out where they will go now, especially so close to the holidays.
"I don’t know what we’re going to do for Christmas, where we’re going to stay," Stockton said. "I could’ve died. It's scary."
