PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man sped down a residential street — in reverse — and crashed his car into an unoccupied house on C Street Sunday afternoon.
The Chevrolet Caprice was totaled, but the man was not injured, police said.
“He got in the car, threw it in reverse and rocketed down Madrona [Street],” said Port Angeles police Officer Allen Brusseau, who responded to the wreck.
Witnesses say the man reached speeds of 60 mph before he clipped the south side of a house on the 4200 block of C Street and smashed into the north side of a neighboring home.
Brusseau said the man was visiting someone on Madrona Street and may have been intoxicated at the time of the wreck, which occurred at about 1 p.m.
“It’s an unusual accident, especially at that time of day,” Brusseau said.
The man drove over two mailboxes and damaged a rock garden as he sped eastbound on Madrona Street.
He ran the stop sign at C Street and nearly crashed into a vehicle traveling north on C Street, Brusseau said.
“If it would have been a split second earlier, he would have T-boned one of them,” Brusseau said.
The house sustained structural damage in the crash, but the man “came out of it without a scratch,” Brusseau said.
The driver was taken into police custody.
“It’s possible he was impaired with something,” Brusseau said.
Brusseau declined to identify the driver, but described him as in his early to mid 60s.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
