Milford community rallies around family after SUV crashes into home, moves it off foundation

The Milford community is rallying around a local family who needs a new place to live after an SUV hit their home, moving it off the foundation and making it uninhabitable.

Marissa Alter

Nov 20, 2023, 11:32 PM

Updated 386 days ago

Share:

The Milford community is rallying around a local family who needs a new place to live after an SUV hit their home, moving it off the foundation and making it uninhabitable.
Neighbor Nick Darbisi said he and his wife for watching TV at home when they heard what sounded like thunder. “I looked outside, and it was just a smoking SUV. At first, I thought it was my neighbor's actual SUV, and then I realized that it was facing perpendicular and into the house,” Darbisi told News 12.
He said his wife called 911 and soon the street was filled with first responders.
“There was significant damage to the vehicle. There was an occupant—the driver—still inside the vehicle, and due to the extensive damage, had to be extricated,” explained Battalion Chief Adam Hansen.
Friends of the family told News 12 their four kids were home at the time and luckily not hurt. But fire officials said even after the crash, it continued to be a dangerous situation.
“There had been a lot of impact and a lot of energy into that house, knocking the house actually 12 inches off the foundation. Now, that might not sound like a lot of distance, but when you move an entire house 12 inches off the foundation that's significant,” Hansen said.
The family stayed at their next-door neighbor’s house that night. That neighbor told News 12 the SUV came from Yale Avenue, which creates a “Y” intersection with Pond Point Ave. There is a stop sign there, but he said people often blow through it. It's not known if that was the case. That neighbor also said the driver crossed over the center line and hit the curb in front of his house. It appears from the tire marks that the SUV went airborne over the sidewalk and landed in the middle of the neighbor’s front yard before plowing into the corner of the home.
“We didn't hear any brakes or anything like that either, so it felt like that had to have happened at full speed,” Dabisi said. The speed limit there is 25 mph. Police are investigating the crash but haven’t released any information about the cause behind it.
The house is considered so unstable that the family wasn't even able to go inside and grab their stuff. Now they not only don’t have a home, but they don’t have clothing, personal items or food either. Local nonprofit Krusinski Kares, Inc. has organized a donation drive. Items can be dropped off at the donation box at 81 Burnt Plains Road.
For a full list of what they need, including clothing sizes for the kids, click here.
You can donate money to the family through Venmo at @KrusKares or @JohnKrusinski. A GoFundMe page was also set up.
The hope is to show this family why Milford is called “The Small City with a Big Heart.”