OAKFIELD, N.Y. — The New York State Police responded to a tractor trailer that crashed into an Oakfield home on Monday night just after 1 a.m.
Troopers say the tractor trailer driver had allegedly fallen asleep at the wheel and ran into a house located at 11 Drake Street, which was said to have been built in the late 1890s. The tractor trailer also hit a car parked at the house.
The tractor trailer driver was taken to UMMC in Batavia where he was treated for non life threatening injuries. Nobody inside the home at the time of the crash was injured.
The Homeowner, who has been identified as Eric Seppala, said his family first moved into that house when his parents bought it in 1957. He now lives there with his wife and children.
At the time of the crash, the Seppala family had been asleep and said they heard a loud noise. Because the power had been shut off, Seppala said he had to find a flashlight before discovering what had happened.
Seppala's children had been on the floor below his bedroom and one of the son's doors was jammed shut. Eric kicked the door down, and was able to get to one son out but not the other. The son whose door couldn't be opened was able to get out through a window. The third son was able to go down the stairs to safely exit.
Seppala said he did not know a tractor trailer had crashed through his house until he made it downstairs and outside with his wife and dogs.
"It just didn't register with me until we got out the door and I could see the truck there and the truck and trailer embedded in the house." Eric said.
Eric was happy to note too that nobody inside the home during the crash had been hurt. He said that the area of the house where the tractor trailer had crashed was a room that his children spend a lot of time in, and his nephew sleeps in when visiting.
"I just want to say thank you to all the law enforcement and all the fire personnel who are out here, they came from all over the place to help. They're still here. I assume some of them are going to be here for a while because I don't know when they're going to be able to move it. I don't know how much they're going to be able to shore up the building. Uh, now it's just a waiting game to see, uh, what's gonna happen and what we got to do from here." said Eric.
"You know, everybody here worked as a team and got everything done that we needed to in a timely fashion," said Trooper Mike Machniak.
Troopers also noted that had the crash been earlier in the day when the family was more likely to be in that area of the house, things could have been much worse.
