RALEIGH, NC — Raleigh police say a woman who slammed her car into two southeast Raleigh houses Wednesday morning suffered a heart attack that caused the crash.
Police responded to a call involving a vehicle that hit and damaged two homes in the 3300 block of Marshlane Way around 7:30 a.m.
“I was sleeping and I heard a loud boom,” said one homeowner, Nicole Collins. “It kind of scared me, it shook the whole house. I didn’t know if we were having a earthquake or what.”
The other homeowner whose house was hit had the same experience as Collins.
“I just heard a big boom and it kind of scared me so I jumped up to see what was going on and came out to this,” Leslie Bourne said. “I was scared to death, I was really scared to know the lady was still the car.”
Police said that the residents who lived in the houses were able to pull the woman out from her car.
Collins was one of those who helped pull the woman out of the car. She said the driver didn’t have a pulse when she was removed from the car.
“She was fighting. We got her out of the car and she was fighting. I just pray she’s alright and she continues fighting,” she said.
First responders arrived on scene and performed CPR on the driver. Emergency crews were able to get the woman stable before transporting her to the hospital.
“They got her out of the car and were getting ready to perform CPR but the ambulance pulled up so we backed up and let them do their thing,” Bourne said. “[First responders] did a really good job, I’m glad they got here on time and did what they could to get her stable and save a life.”
Hospital officials listed her in critical condition as of 4:30 p.m.
Officers are crediting the residents for potentially saving White’s life.
Both homes were occupied at the time of the crash, but no one inside either home was injured.
Collins said she’s grateful the accident happened when it did. Her son would have been outside waiting for the school bus had the crash happened 30 minutes earlier.
“My son would have been walking in her direction to the school bus, directly in the path her car came…he would have been out here walking to the school bus,” she said.
Collins added that her biggest concern is for the driver and not her home.
“I was praying that whoever the driver was was OK. This [house damage] is materialistic. I just wanted whoever it was to be OK,” she said.
