'It felt like an explosion:' Ottawa family recounts car crashing into home

Rebecca Liu stands with her eight-month-old son and surveys her damaged home through the fenced-off front yard.

The door is caved in. Cracked bricks are everywhere. And there's a troubling tilt to the large bay window.

The damage to the Stittsville home happened in one horrifying moment last week. A teenager driving a stolen SUV at high speed down their quiet dead-end street smashed into their home, causing severe damage and leaving the house uninhabitable.

“It was a very, very scary scene," Liu told CTV News Ottawa. "When I hear back on my partner's experience it is very shocking. He thought it was an explosion, and it felt like an explosion because the ground shook."

Liu wasn't home when the vehicle was rocketed into their home on Lloydalex Crescent. She was out with her eight-month-old son. But her three other children, ages three, four and 11 were home, along with her partner.

Within minutes of the crash, Liu received the phone call to get home fast.

“Driving up the street, all I saw were all the lights from the emergency vehicles and I saw this large SUV inside my house,” she says. “A lot of panic ensued and I had to run in just to make sure the kids were okay. It was very, very shocking and it's hard to describe.

No one was seriously injured, including the 16-year-old female driver from Montreal, who witnesses said crawled out of the vehicle on her own and was immediately arrested.

But the event has turned Liu and her family's lives upside down.

"Our oldest, he’s had a lot of difficulty with it adjusting, and some nightmares," she said. "My almost four-year-old keeps asking to go home. So we’re trying to get them the help they need in order to adjust to where we are for now."

Liu said she feels fortunate to have her family with her, but is also having difficulty not thinking about how much worse things could have been.

"We go through so many ‘what-if’ scenarios, just what could have happened on any other night if it was just a few minutes this way or that way or the vehicle had slightly veered into the other room.”

The crash caused enough damage that Ottawa Fire Services, called-in its structural-support team, to brace the house because of the threat of a potential collapse onto neighbouring homes.
City of Ottawa engineers are working with the family’s private insurance company to determine the extent of the damage and whether the house can be saved.

But as it stands right now, buckled and braced, it remains unsafe to go inside.

“It’s really hard to see because we have a lot of memories in this home," she said. "We don’t know how long we’re going to go without being able to re-access our items inside the house if ever,” Liu said, adding that the family has had to replace some essential items their children are used to, such as diapers, food and toys.

A tight-knit community of neighbours are helping, providing support as well as fundraising efforts through a GoFundMe.

“I’m honestly so humbled and so grateful. I can feel their wish to help us is genuine, it feels like an extended part of my family and I sincerely appreciate it. I really want to thank everybody in this Lloydalex street area and all the neighbours here,” says Liu. “I also want to extend my thanks to the first responders, the fire department, and the police for really handling that situation well for us, including one officer who brought in a few teddy bears for the kids during the whole event.

"That was very, very kind.”