Car Crash update:
John Frank Jr., 41, said he was out with his family on the evening of Feb. 10, the night he and his son were nearly struck by an out-of-control car.
He and his wife Savannah and three of their children had been out at the swimming pool then stopped by KFC restaurant for a bite to eat . They saw the restaurant close at 10 p.m. and headed home in separate vehicles.
Frank was traveling with his six year-old son in their Smart Car traveling east on Hammond Bay Road. Their home is located in a windy and hilly section of Nanaimo. Another family vehicle was traveling behind and Frank said he was expecting another family member to drop off their grandson.
“I had to make a sharp right turn to get into my driveway and was doing that when I saw a small black car coming from the opposite direction,” Frank recalled. Frank said the car was going fast and suddenly made a left turn in front of him into his driveway, forcing him to hit his breaks and reverse because the driver had cut him off.
“At first I thought it was (a family member) horsing around,” he said. The black car then hit the dirt burm on the left side of the driveway, forcing the driver to back up to get back onto the driveway.
“She hit reverse and was coming at me again, so I had to hit the gas to keep from being hit by her,” he added. He said the car missed him by inches.
After backing up, the black car crossed Hammond Bay Road, through some road signs and trees on the other side of the road before tumbling through fences and landing on the back deck of a family home on Vista View Crescent, just down the hill from the Frank family home.
Terrified that his family may be in the car, Frank left his car in his driveway and ran down to the accident scene. He said he climbed up onto the wreckage and, using the light from his cell phone asked if everyone was okay.
Seeing that it wasn’t his family in the car, he felt a sense of relief. He said the woman was trapped in the car and kept saying she was sorry.
He, and another man, stayed with her until emergency vehicles arrived.
After it was all over Frank said he spent the evening comforting his six year-old son who witnessed the accident. Frank said he was grateful everyone was okay.
Original Story:
An Ahousaht family living in Nanaimo is thanking their lucky stars after witnessing a dramatic accident that included a car careening out of control through their back yard before coming to a rest on a neighbor’s deck two doors down.
John Frank Jr. of Ahousaht said the accident happened around 10 p.m. on Feb. 10. He said the car went crashing through his Hammond Bay Road driveway before plowing through the neighbor’s yard then flipped and landed on its side on the deck of the other’s neighbor’s house.
“It was pretty scary. It almost hit us twice,” said Frank. Making matters even more frightening is that Frank thought the car was being driven by the person who was to be bringing his grandson to his house.
“I was scared for him; turned out luckily it wasn't,” Frank added.
Frank said the female driver was trapped inside the car. He estimated her age to be 40 to 50 years old. “She just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry’, over and over,” said Frank.
