Car rams vehicles, crashes through bedroom of Norwich home
Norwich — Police said a 30-year-old Willimantic man was drunk and driving at a high speed when his vehicle launched off a stone wall, through live power lines and into the second floor of a multifamily home at 665 W. Thames St.
No serious injuries were reported among the occupants of the home but the vehicle crashed through the wall of a second-floor bedroom. The house was not the only personal property damaged early Saturday morning by a vehicle that police said was driven by William Lassiter of 20 Prospect St., Apt. 1, Willimantic.
Lassiter is being held in lieu of a $75,000 bond on a warrant for his failure to appear in a Willimantic court to answer to his second arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, state records show. Norwich police are working on another warrant to charge him with DUI and other charges.
Police said they initially received a call about 1:30 a.m. Saturday from Modelo Bar & Grill at 543 W. Thames St. The report was for a man using an SUV to ram other vehicles in the parking lot and leaving the scene. Police arrived to find six vehicles damaged, five of them damaged enough that they required a tow. Two utility poles also were struck.
Police caught up with Lassiter at the crash scene at 665 W. Thames St., where they found the vehicle hanging from the second floor of the home with wires wrapped around it.
East Great Plain Volunteer Fire Department Chief Keith Milton said the outcome could have been worse, considering the vehicle landed in a daughter’s bedroom. She was sleeping in bed at the time and was taken to the hospital with only minor injuries. Milton said she was visibly shaken by the crash, which sprayed debris throughout her room. The vehicle came within a few feet of her bed.
Milton said firefighters stabilized the crashed vehicle and called in aid from the City of Norwich Fire Department, who brought a tower ladder, Truck 1, to the scene. After the power was shut down, the bucket of the fire truck was used to lift a firefighter up to the vehicle in order to assess the condition of the driver. Milton declined comment about the driver’s condition.
Lassiter was taken to the Backus Hospital and released later into police custody. Criminal charges are forthcoming, police said.
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