GROVELAND, MASS. (WHDH) - At least three people were injured after authorities say a driver struck part of a senior living facility in Groveland.
The Groveland Fire Department said emergency crews were called to Nichols Village late Monday morning where a vehicle ended up embedded in the wall of a building.
Officials said the driver, an 83-year-old man, and two occupants of a multi-family unit were injured as a result of the crash.
“I thought the fire pit that we have on the patio had blown up, because I could see the debris and the fire pit was all mangled,” Joanne Drinan told reporters.
Joanne and John Drinan were home when the Lexus SUV barreled into the wall of the unit below them.
“It wasn’t like the building shook or anything, it was just a ‘boom,'” said John Drinan.
One of the occupants was treated at the scene while the other, an 84-year-old woman, and the driver were taken to a hospital for further treatment.
Fire officials said it was a married couple that in the unit that took the direct hit.
“She was sitting right at the wall and she was knocked about ten feet away from the wall,” said Groveland Fire Chief Bob Valentine, who added that crews needed heavy machinery to remove the driver from his vehicle.
“The wall that he had hit wasn’t on top of him, but it was holding him in place, so we had to move that debris – we had to remove the backdoor and remove him out the backdoor because we didn’t know the stability of that wall,” Valentine explained.
The architectural engineer who designed the building was later called in to evaluate the structure and found that it was stable enough for the car to be removed.
Following the crash, most residents were allowed to stay put, except for the couple in the struck unit and the Drinans.
Details on what led up to the wreck have not yet been released.
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