Pickup truck hits house, tree in Fauntleroy

| Fauntleroy | West Seattle news

That photo is from Dwight, in the 4300 block of Brace Point (map), who explains:

Our house got rammed by a ’99 Dodge Ram 1500 v8. We live in the middle of the block so it seems rather odd that someone would swerve, take down a 12ft maple and hit the house.

Fence is gone, too.

The tree you see in the photo is supposed to be where the bumper of the truck is, despite looking like it’s planted on the corner of the house.

Checking on injuries; no medic unit was dispatched, which suggests if anyone was hurt in this crash (which happened just before 8 pm), it wasn’t major. We also received photos from Carlos — this one’s a bit blurry but it provides another angle:

ADDED 9:55 PM: We asked Dwight if anyone was hurt:

No one and no critters were hurt. No windows or doors were blown so we’re lucky. We’re very lucky to have had such a large tree on the corner of the lot; otherwise we’d be missing a large chunk of the house. That tree took the brunt of the assault, and the trunk was large enough to help ground the bottom of the truck before it hit the brick.

WSB May 3, 2009 (9:54 pm)

Just got a note back from Dwight, who lives there and sent the first photo/info – he says no injuries. Adding that to the main story … TR

Michael May 3, 2009 (11:17 pm)

I don’t get “it seems rather odd that someone would swerve, take down a 12ft maple and hit the house.”
.
Was it a stolen vehicle hit-and-run or something?
.
Otherwise, if the driver was drunk/medicated/medically incapacitated, it would be easy to understand.

Judy May 4, 2009 (7:45 am)

Dwight, I’m so sorry this happened to you folks. Seems we are never safe in our beds. Surely the driver was impaired.

worms Roxanne, I'm afraid of worms. May 4, 2009 (8:56 am)

Sorry you had such a scary event happen. I am glad everyone is safe. Can I have the tree for firewood?

If so:
chrisg@rtgis.com

Thank you
Chris

Note May 4, 2009 (10:02 am)

I would hire an arborist to come over asap to give you an estimate of the cost of the tree. Document with photos and get the arborist report so that you can submit it to the other party/insurance. You’d be surprised at how much the replacement is going to be. You should be compensated so that you can plant another!

eric May 4, 2009 (1:33 pm)

I was plating dinner in the kitchen when it happened. The Japanese maple tree saved my life. Our kitchen is behind the glass window where the truck had pushed the tree. The tree used to stand closer to the fence by the sidewalk.

Pat May 4, 2009 (2:29 pm)

The picture does tell the story. I still don’t understand why the driver swirved in your direction. I would have thought going to his right would have made more sense. Glad you are all ok including the critters.

fatcat1111 May 4, 2009 (8:52 pm)

Does anybody know how the driver ended up doing this?

WSB May 4, 2009 (9:20 pm)

I’m at the precinct right now and will be looking through the report folders – sometimes it takes a few days for a police report to be printed and made publicly available, but if there’s one here, I’ll pass along whatever it says … TR

B-squared May 4, 2009 (9:52 pm)

i second what Note said about getting your claims adjuster to accurately assess the tree’s value and the cost of replacing with same (mature maple). those trees are far more important than folks imagine.

Sorry, comment time is over.