What to do after a truck crashes into your house

Cheyenne residents Bill Lembke and Susie Degner rebuild their home after a truck crashed into it in a freak accident.a huge hole in the side of the house and the couple with at least $30,000 in damage.

The couple lives just off Central Avenue in Cheyenne, one of the community’s busiest streets. Now Lembke considers the experience an “unnecessary inconvenience.” At the time, the crash was a little more dramatic.

How it happened

It started on Oct. 11, when a pickup truck jumped the sidewalk and crashed into their downtown Cheyenne home, knocking out a significant portion of the brick wall and leaving a gaping hole in their living room around the fireplace.

The Toyota Tundra had crashed into their house after it was hit by another vehicle, which spun and rolled over three times before I crashagainst their brick wall and chimney.

Lembke and Degner were still at work when the event occurred and were warned about it by a neighbor. Another neighbor said they felt their own house shaking when the impact occurred.

“Thank God we had a brick house because if it had been wood it would have been in our house,” Degner said.

The truck bounced off the house and was left completely destroyed and mangled, with one of the wheels completely broken off.

Degner said the scene looked like a tornado ripped through their yard.

Lembke said their home became somewhat of a neighborhood attraction after that, with more than a few looky-loos stopping to gawk at them and talk to them about the massacre.

A confused mail lady even asked Lembke why they cut down their tree, to which he quickly responded by pointing to the hole in the fireplace.

“She said, ‘Oh my God,’” he said.

Video footage of the event and bystanders who said they saw it live proved that the truck first hit a tree in Lembke and Degner’s yard, which was the cause It into their house. By the time the crash was finally over, the The truck was on its side facing the opposite direction of traffic on the one-way Central Avenue.

The driver of the truck, Cheyenne resident Jon Kinsolving, miraculously walked away from the crash a little dazed just have suffered minor scratches on his arm and back.

Bystanders told Lembke they couldn’t believe Kinsolving had survived the crash.

When the couple arrived a crowd of emergency workers was already on the scene at their home. Although their cat Joey usually spends time in the living room near the wall, the couple was relieved to find the cat was unharmed.

About a week after the crash, another section of the exterior brick wall collapsed in the middle of the night.

“What the hell happened?” Lembke said he wondered before he discovered the cavity had grown in his home.

About 15 minutes later, another piece fell onto the road.

Assessing the damage

Lembke estimates they suffered at least $30,000 in damage to their home. Many of the stones that fell from the wall were damaged in the accident, leading the couple to consider replacing the wall with stone.

Lembke and Degner hope and praying the foundation wasn’t damaged, causing the repair costs to shoot up even more.

Not only was their home damaged, but the tree the truck crashed into, which they had planted when they moved into the home in 2005, was completely uprooted.

As the truck drove through the yard, it also struck the branch of a crabapple tree, which fell off and caused approximately $6,000 in damage to one of their vehicles.

The crabapples were all over the car, making it look like he had just played a paintball game, he said.

A metal swing was also completely destroyed in the accident. This may have been a blessing in disguise, as Degner said she asked her husband if they could get rid of the toys.

“Now she got her wish, because it’s gone,” Lembke said.

They also lose money because they have to take time off work to work with insurance companies and other inspectors on the cleanup.

I also lost the Birdhouse

One of the smallest and saddest damages to the house was a small birdhouse located on the outside of the chimney that fell down in the second collapse.

The birdhouse was already there when they moved in, and through Facebook they discovered that it had been there since a previous resident had put it up as a child in the 1970s.

“The birds loved it,” Lembke said.

The couple is also considering putting up a block wall to prevent future events like this from happening again.

The loss of the tree wasn’t heartbreaking for Degner, who wasn’t a big fan of the berries it released on their yard each spring.

Degner approaches the event with a glass half full and sees it as an opportunity to renovate the house. Lembke is not so optimistic, calling it “a huge pain in the ass.”

The couple was already busy creating their garden when the crash happened, what has come to a complete stop.

“Within a month and a half, we went from a pretty decent house to a hillbilly deluxe here,” Lembke said. “We’ve really fallen off the ladder around here.”

Vehicles crash into buildings is unusual, but not necessarily rare, and Lembke said he is aware of a few other examples of this happening in Wyoming.

Fortunately, this was the first time this type of event had happened to their home. A house that kept getting hit by vehicles at a T-intersection in Casper demolished and will not be rebuilt again. It was unoccupied because it had been hit by vehicles at least three times, the last time an SUV that ended up in the living room.

Misery loves company

Lembke said he and Kinsolving, the driver of the truck, have built a bit of a bond over what happened.

The man who caused the accident immediately left the scene, but was later arrested for an unrelated crime.

Lembke said damages from the incident are covered by Kinsolving’s insurance, while Kinsolving’s damages are covered by the man who caused the accident.

“Me and the man in the truck are literally innocent victims of this whole thing,” Lembke said.

The event will cause all their insurance rates to increase. Lembke worries how much his insurance rates will rise again if another unforeseen event like a hailstorm occurs and he needs a new roof.

“My God, I’m going to have to get a second job just to pay for my homeowners insurance,” Lembke said.

Lembke said he has noticed more wayward crashes happening elsewhere and worries that ‘the whole world is going crazy’. He told how his daughter was hit by two vehicles in a short period of time a few years ago.

Degner said a truck crashed into her house also proves how bad speeding on Central Avenue has become, and Lembke said he tells his friends to park their cars in front of their houses if they don’t like it.

“Because it’s going to get hit,” he said.

His dumpster, trailer and truck have all fallen victim to reckless drivers.

The long and straight road is a frequent victim of racers who go well over the speed limit and don’t seem to worry about being stopped by the police.

“The police don’t patrol this area at all,” Lembke said. “They could earn someone’s annual salary just sitting here. What will be needed? Does someone have to die here to get more patrols?’

Leo Wolfson can be reached at [email protected].