Semi-Truck Crashes Into South Suburban Apartment Building

A semi-truck crashed into a residential building in south suburban Lansing early Tuesday, leaving two people injured, including the truck driver. 

The crash took place around 5 a.m. on Torrence Avenue near 184th Street, authorities said.

A semi-truck lost control and veered into an apartment building that had four units, three of which were unoccupied at the time, Village of Lansing spokesman Ken Reynolds said. 

Video footage from the scene showed the truck fully off the road with its cab nearly entirely inside the two-story building.

A tenant in the first-floor unit was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center with a broken leg, officials said. 

The driver of the truck was pinned in the vehicle for roughly three hours, authorities said, extricated by first responders at 7:58 a.m. and taken to the University of Chicago Hospital. 

He was conscious at the time and responding to emergency crews, though village officials did not know his condition nor the extent of his injuries. 

Three members of the fire personnel also sustained minor injuries to their backs and hands in the rescue operation, Reynolds said. 

Torrence Avenue was closed in both directions from Ridge Road to 186th Street for several hours, with police advising drivers to avoid the area of the collision. 

"The building is being shored up for safety before they attempt to remove the semi," Reynolds said, adding that crews had to reinforce a beam to keep the entire building from collapsing before the truck could be taken from the scene. 

The building was deemed unsafe, authorities said, though tenants may potentially be able to go into their residences later Tuesday to get their belongings under supervision. 

The property owner was notified and came to the scene, with a village official saying he sent a message expressing concern for his tenants. He personally contacted them all, a village official said, and said he was relieved that they did not sustain any major injuries. 

One of the tenants said she was inside her home sleeping at the time of the crash, as were her two children, grandmother and little sister. 

"I felt my whole building shake," Danielle Godfrey said, "and my fans fell and hit me in the bed. I looked to see if my 2-year-old son was okay. He was fine."

"I jump up, look at my window and I see a semi-truck in my building," she added. "You could see my bedroom wall pushed in."

"I ran outside, all I see is the bottom half of the semi-truck inside of his room — it was so much debris and bricks on top of him you couldn't even see him but you could hear him yelling," Godfrey said of the resident who was injured in the crash. "I got some of the neighbors, but we couldn't get to him so I called 911."

"It hurts me we have nowhere to go," she continued. "My landlord said his insurance doesn’t cover me and my kids going somewhere. They told me once they pull the truck out, my bedroom could collapse."

Lansing officials said the truck belonged to Carl Buddig company and was filled with meat. A spokesman for the company did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

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