SUV Plows Through Casper House On Sunday; Home Has Been Hit At Least 3 Times

An SUV plowed into a home on the 1300 block of McKinley in Casper on Sunday afternoon. The vehicle drove through a bedroom, bathroom, and ended up in the kitchen. The home was being repaired from the last time a car hit it.

DK
Dale Killingbeck

March 10, 20243 min read

Casper fire and police personnel were called to the intersection of 13th and McKinley streets on March 10, 2024, to find a driver suffering a medical emergency who had plowed into a house.
Casper fire and police personnel were called to the intersection of 13th and McKinley streets on March 10, 2024, to find a driver suffering a medical emergency who had plowed into a house. (Courtesy: Casper Fire Department)

The third major strike on a home at the intersection 13th and McKinley streets in Casper may bring the house down.

Casper’s Fire Department and Police Department responded to a call at 1:11 p.m. Sunday to T-shaped intersection a wood-framed house on the 1300 block of McKinley to find a white SUV inside the entire left side of the vacant home.

“Firefighters extricated the driver of the vehicle who appeared to be suffering from a medical emergency,” reported Dane Anderson, fire department spokesman. “The  driver was transported to Banner Health Wyoming Medical Center via ambulance.”

Anderson reported that fire fighters constructed temporary support for the structure to prevent further collapse of the building.

Eastbound traffic on 13th Street was closed and South McKinley was closed while crews tried to stabilize the structure.

A couple of hours later, homeowner Robert Lara looked at the structure with family and friends. He was called to the scene by the city.

“It’s been hit several times,” he said. “A year and four months ago it was hit and no one has been living at the house or anything. The insurance company just settled with me about six months ago. We were going to have to remodel it and now it’s probably going to have to come down.”

Sunday’s driver just missed two big landscaping rocks, rolled through a direction sign and into the 1920s-era structure.

“The car went all the way through, went through the bedroom, went through the closet, bathroom and hit the kitchen wall,” Lara said. “It only had eight feet before it went out the back.”

The home has a basement and Lara said he was surprised that the floor held the weight of the vehicle.

Lara said his home has been struck several times, but three major strikes. The last time 16 months ago sent him and his family to a rental in Mills. They recently purchased another home but he was hoping to remodel the structure.

An insurance adjuster will likely determine whether the house can be salvaged, Lara said.

Lara said his neighbor on the north on McKinley Street has been hit about eight times and his neighbor on the south has had a vehicle hit by people trying to motor through the T-intersection too fast.

“This corner is really, really bad,” he said.

Casper Police Department continues to investigate the cause of the crash.

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at: Dale@CowboyStateDaily.com

  • This home at the intersection of 13th and McKinley streets in Casper has been hit several times, three times causing significant damage.
    This home at the intersection of 13th and McKinley streets in Casper has been hit several times, three times causing significant damage. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
  • Houses at the T-shaped intersection of 13th and McKinley streets have been subject to several incidents over the years.
    Houses at the T-shaped intersection of 13th and McKinley streets have been subject to several incidents over the years. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
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Dale Killingbeck

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Killingbeck is glad to be back in journalism after working for 18 years in corporate communications with a health system in northern Michigan. He spent the previous 16 years working for newspapers in western Michigan in various roles.