Guess who’s coming to dinner?

Frontiersman

WASILLA — A pickup-versus-condo collision Thursday resulted in a whole lot of property damage and, miraculously, very few injuries.

“It’s wonderful that the occupants of the structure were not injured,” said Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele.

According to the Wasilla Police Department, the accident was reported at 6:24 p.m. on Nelson Avenue near Weber Drive. Wasilla Police Sgt. Craig Robinson identified the driver as Shane Guszregan, 29. The condo was on the north side of Nelson Avenue.

“A pickup had accelerated across the intersection, over a curb, across the lawn and struck the residence at 661 Nelson Avenue,” is how police describe the accident.

Steele was slightly more explicit.

“We responded and there was this truck that was approximately two thirds of the length of the truck inside the living room of the apartment,” Steele said. “Still running. Still in drive.”

Were the tires still spinning?

“They were spinning — I mean screeching,” Steele said.

Crews immediately went inside to find out if anyone was hurt, Steele said. One responder was able to reach inside and put the pickup in park and turn the engine off.

“You could not see the apartment because of the layer of smoke that was coming up from those tires,” he said. “It looked like the structure was actually on fire.”

But there were no flames, though one spot on the floor looked like it was getting close to catching fire, he said. The lack of serious injuries from the crash was all the more remarkable because it’s not as if no one was home at the time.

“There were two occupants inside the house eating dinner,” he said. “They are OK — startled, but OK.”

Steele said he couldn’t speculate what caused the crash and he saw nothing on scene that made him think he had a good handle on exactly why the truck went into the condo.

“But the reports we got from witnesses there were that the vehicle actually stopped at the intersection that was right across from the apartment and then just went,” Steele said.

Robinson didn’t want to get too deep into the details of what led up to the crash, but said he will be filing charges against Guszregan, probably sometime next week.

“He was impaired,” Robinson said, but didn’t indicate what substance he believes was in Guszregan’s system at the time.

The driver was hospitalized at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. Steele said Guszregan went there “for observation” but didn’t have details about injuries sustained in the crash.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.