2 hurt as SUV crashes into Toledo apartment

Building on Collingwood Blvd. hit

6/22/2013
BY TAYLOR DUNGJEN
BLADE STAFF WRITER
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    Toledo firefighters respond to an apartment building on Collingwood Boulevard where a sport utility vehicle crashed, striking a woman inside on a couch and trapping her.

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  • Toledo firefighters respond  to an apartment building on Collingwood Boulevard where a sport utility vehicle crashed, striking a woman inside on a couch and trapping her.
    Toledo firefighters respond to an apartment building on Collingwood Boulevard where a sport utility vehicle crashed, striking a woman inside on a couch and trapping her.

    Two people were taken to hospitals after a sport utility vehicle crashed into a central Toledo apartment building.

    Dorcas Stevens, 28, a manager at Revol Wireless, was taking a cigarette break about 2:30 p.m. Friday when she said she saw a couple in an SUV arguing.

    A woman got out, and the man, identified by police as Keith Richardson of Toledo, sped off, driving across Collingwood Boulevard, near Dorr Street, and slamming into 1202 Collingwood.

    The SUV knocked out a load-bearing wall, busting through bricks and windows.

    Veronica Alexander was on a couch in the apartment and ended up with one of her legs stuck between a wheel and the vehicle.

    Earl Wilson, 28, also saw the confrontation and the SUV crash.

    He said he jumped on his skateboard and rolled “fast as I could” to the apartment building to see if anyone was hurt.

    The woman on the couch was yelling, “Help me! I can’t get my leg out!” Mr. Wilson recalled.

    Mr. Wilson said he got in the SUV — the driver was then sitting in the middle front seat — started the engine, and turned the wheel so the woman could free her leg.

    Members of the Toledo Fire Department help an injured man on a stretcher after the incident Friday.
    Members of the Toledo Fire Department help an injured man on a stretcher after the incident Friday.

    Ms. Stevens and Mr. Wilson then, together, pulled the woman out of the apartment where they were met by emergency responders who took the woman to a hospital.

    Ms. Stevens said while they were pulling the woman from the building, she was on the phone with a 911 call taker.

    “I had 911 on the phone telling me to calm down. I’m all, ‘How can I calm down? I got a lady who been run over.’ ”

    Battalion fire Chief David Rodriguez said the woman appeared to suffer minor injuries and might have been hit in the face by debris.

    Four units of the building were evacuated after the crash — two as a precaution, the chief said.

    Ms. Alexander and Mr. Richardson were taken to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. A hospital spokesman said late Friday that Mr. Richardson was still under emergency care. She said she did not have a patient with the name of Veronica Alexander.

    The crash remains under investigation. If charges are filed, it would not be until after Mr. Richardson is released from the hospital.

    Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.