PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Stephen Willard shut his eyes to a quiet house while sitting on the couch late Thursday night. Moments later, they snapped open to a loud crash, and the room around him was black.
“I was half asleep by the TV set and suddenly, BOOM!” Willard said. “There was a bang, the lights went out, and I knew something was serious.”
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He didn’t realize it at the time, but a truck had just drove through the fence of his front yard and into the garage. It wasn’t until he opened the front door that he saw the first of the damage.
“I stepped out and realized, ‘this is weird, there are no steps here,’” said Willard.
Willard ended up being trapped in his home for more than an hour until St. Johns County Fire Rescue responded and got him out. The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened at around 11:30 PM between three cars, including the truck, on South Ponte Vedra Boulevard.
St. Johns County Fire Rescue, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol are investigating exactly how the truck ended up in Willard’s house, but he says its driver was standing in his yard when he went onto the front porch.
“He wasn’t making much sense at first, I thought he was some drunk who got off the road,” Willard said.
After talking for a few minutes, Willard says the driver told him he had lost control of the truck, hit a Kia parked in the driveway and rammed into the house. Now, he’s just hoping he will be able to have his house back.
“I’m totally lucky that I’m completely unscathed by any of this, so, to me, it’s just a big adventure, it’s just weird,” said Willard.
We’re told neither of the drivers involved in this crash were hurt.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office tells Action News Jax the crash report won’t be made available for another 60 days. We’re told Florida Highway Patrol will likely take over the investigation since this happened on a state road.
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