Mother, Daughter Injured After Car Slams Into House On Staten Island
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A woman and her 5-year-old daughter were injured after a car crashed through their home on Staten Island early Friday morning.
It happened just after 4 a.m. at a house on Arthur Kill Road in Tottenville when Charles Trainor, 22, the driver of a white Hyundai Elantra, barreled through the stop sign at the intersection, police said.
1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reports
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The car then plowed through the wall of a front room in the ground floor apartment of the house. It ran over the bed where Lisa Roman and her daughter Leonora were asleep, pinning them underneath the vehicle.
"They were in a bed and the car ended up being on top of the bed and my daughter and granddaughter ended up being underneath," said Leonora's grandmother JoAnn Micciulla.
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Roman's other daughters, who were asleep in a back room, ran to help their mother and sister.
"I was shaking, just ran over there and tried to pull my mother out, lift up the car to get them out," said Roman's 17-year-old daughter Melissa.
"I heard a crash. It sounded like gunshots but 10 times worse," Melissa told CBS 2's Tony Aiello.
"We heard my mom screaming 'help, help. I'm stuck, help," said Roman's daughter Josette.
The two were taken to Staten Island North University Hospital. They are both listed in critical, but stable condition.
"My granddaughter is sedated because her injuries are very severe -- mostly to her face," Micciulla said. "At least they're alive, even the baby, she's alive. It could have been worse, could have ran over her and we would've lost her."
Al Calascione, who owns the house which is split into four apartments, said a car crashed into it a decade ago in the same spot.
"I want to make sure this time we put up a cement barrier or guard rail so this doesn't happen again," he said.
The city Department of Transportation said there was no request for safety improvements at that intersection after the first crash in 2002. But after this crash, they will consider safety enhancements.
Trainor was charged with two counts of vehicular assault in the second-degree, DWI and driving while impaired by drugs in the first-degree, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.
