Woman and baby escape serious injury when garbage truck drives through home near LaPorte

LAPORTE — At least one person was seriously injured when a garbage truck demolished the side of a house Tuesday south of LaPorte.

Miraculously, perhaps, a woman and her baby inside the single-story residence were not seriously hurt.

The crash happened about noon on U.S. 35 near County Road 400 South near Kingsbury, Ind.

LaPorte County Sheriff John Boyd said it appears one of the front tires blew on the southbound garbage truck.

The truck veered across the grassy median and both northbound lanes before demolishing the south side of the house, he said.

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Dylan Seely, 23, lived in the house with his 22-year old wife, Simone, and their 11-month-old daughter.

Seely said he was at his job in Westville when his wife called him about the crash.

“She said a truck went through the house, and I got here as fast as I could,” he said.

Seely said his wife and daughter were on the other side of the house from where the truck crashed into the structure.

“They were far away from the truck,” he said.

Boyd said the driver jumped out of the garbage truck just before the collision. He said one man in the truck was taken by medical helicopter to a trauma center at an outside hospital.

The other member of the waste disposal crew was transported to a hospital by ambulance.

Boyd said he did not know their conditions.

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Seely said his wife was driven by ambulance to a hospital, where she received stitches to one of her knees after it was struck by debris.

The baby was not hurt, he said.

Boyd said a dog inside the home was injured and taken to the clinic of a nearby veterinarian for treatment.

“It certainly could have been a lot worse than what the crash was,” he said.

Seely said the damage to the house his family rented for about a year didn’t seem real.

“It’s crazy,” he said.

The garbage truck belonged to Lakeshore Recycling and Disposal out of New Buffalo.

The northbound and southbound lanes were entirely blocked to traffic for a while to allow emergency responders to go about their work safely.