COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County family was left deeply shaken, but thankful not to be hurt, early Friday morning after a car crashed into their home.
Cobb Police arrested the 19-year-old driver.
11Alive's Rarione Maniece was on scene and spoke to the family at the home on Alaspair Lane off Baker Road. They described how the crash occurred around 2 a.m.
"I was asleep, woke up about 2 something, and I went in the kitchen to get some water... I left my glass on the counter to go back in my room to get something and before I could get back in the kitchen... I heard the noise and I see the kitchen collapse," a resident at the home, who gave her first name as Kathy, said. "I smelled gas and it was real loud, and I just started screaming and telling everybody, 'I smell gas, let's just get out of the house.'"
Police said the incident began when officers from the Cobb County Police Department DUI Task Force tried to stop a BMW X5 for failing to maintain a single lane of travel and suspected DUI. Police said the 19-year-old tried to speed off from officers.
They located the car a few minutes later -- crashed inside of a home. They said the driver was speeding when the car began to side slip and eventually left the road on Jacobean Drive. The BMW hit stone landscaping near the intersection and the car went airborne, police said. The BMW then hit a tree before striking the rear side of one house, and then crashing inside of another one on Alaspair Lane.
A person inside one of the homes who complained of an injury was taken to the hospital, Cobb Police said. The driver was also transported with minor injuries.
11Alive Photojournalist Jojo Johnson was invited into the home by the family to see the damage in daylight.
The resident 11Alive spoke to at the scene said family had been sleeping in a back room that the car also drove through, and that they were OK as well.
"The car -- the front of the car was actually in my kitchen," she said. "My back bedroom where my sister was visiting... the car was actually in the guest bedroom over them."
The sister's boyfriend also spoke to 11Alive and described the moment the crash happened.
"There's a big boom and we was laying on the bed, I wake up I can see a car," he said. "I'm laying on the bed but I can see a car and a guy inside a car."
She also mentioned how the driver was taken away on a stretcher but not seriously hurt.
"Bless his heart, he wasn't hurt. I hate to say it's a tragedy for us totally, I thank God none of us got hurt, but I'm also glad that he didn't either," the resident said.
Cobb Police said there were also passengers in the vehicle but that "we do not currently have details regarding the extent of their injuries."
Kennesaw Police also posted on X around 4:30 a.m. that Baker Road near Baker Elementary School was closed due to the police response to the area. The department said the road was reopened around 6:15 a.m.
Cobb County Police said the crash is still under investigation and charges are pending.
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