Car catapults into house

  Eyewitness News

(Coram - WABC, September 12, 2006) (WABC) -- Police are investigating a crash Tuesday that left a car in between the two second-floor apartments of a house in Coram.

"If I had decided to get up earlier, I think I would have been dead," said Amrita Bijoor, who lives in the front second-floor apartment. "I just heard a loud thud and then I woke up. I opened my window, and I saw some smoke."

Investigators confirm the driver, identified as a Mount Sinai man in his 40s, died in the crash. Police say the incident began one street over on Osborne Avenue, where they say the driver reached speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour while hurtling towards the end of the dead-end street. They say he then hit a berm or embankment, which catapulted the car over the woods.

According to officials, the airborne car flew 150 feet straight into the building.

"There was one witness on this neighboring street here that saw the vehicle drive by at a very high rate of speed, crash into that berm and disappear," Suffolk Detective Sergeant Michael Fitzharris said.

The car left no marks on the grass, only on the trees above.

"On the other side, there's about a mile straight run," neighbor Jessica Adler said. "It just went straight up and...right into the building."

Police say no one was home in the back second-floor apartment when the incident happened. A first-floor family was in the house at the time, but no injuries were reported.

Family members of the victim said he may have had a heart attack, but added it is too early to determine the cause of the accident.

Officials say the tenants of the four apartments in the house will be placed in temporary housing. They are not expected to be allowed back into their homes for the next several months.

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