Members of a Naramata family narrowly escaped injury Sunday when a speeding vehicle drove into their driveway, hitting their car and house before stopping.
A black PT Cruiser driven by a 69-year-old Penticton woman reportedly came from the other side of Hayman Road just before the accident happened.
Brian Rippy said he was outside with his five-year-old son just before 8 p.m. when he heard the vehicle and looked up and saw it coming in their direction.
“It (vehicle) accelerated pretty rapidly and was travelling about 30 kilometres an hour and narrowly missed my son. It really did happen that quickly,” said Rippy, who was unloading the vehicle after the family had just returned from a trip. “It hit my vehicle, moving it seven to 10 feet, and then the house, the master bedroom.”
His eight-year-old daughter was in that room at the time and the impact of the collision pushed a chest of drawers in her direction, but she was not hurt. While his vehicle, a Volkswagen Jetta, did bump into Rippy, he was not injured.
Both his car and the PT Cruiser driven by the Penticton woman received significant damage, as did the section of the house that was hit.
According to Penticton RCMP Sgt. Rick Dellebuur, neither the woman nor her 76-year-old husband, who was in the passenger seat, were seriously injured.
Rippy said the couple did appear to be shaken up as both airbags in their vehicle deployed. According to police, the driver was issued a ticket for an unsafe start.