A woman's wild ride around a Delaware retirement community Friday morning left herself and a neighbor eating breakfast injured.
"I don't know how the heck she made it out of there," said neighbor Gail Duvernay. "She definitely had a guardian angel."
A 60-year-old resident of the Village of Hershey Run 55-plus community in Stanton, Delaware slammed her sedan into a home along Colefax Court around 7:40 a.m., said New Castle County Police Cpl. Tom Jackson.
"I was sitting in the lounge chair and I heard a loud bang," said Ben Buzin.
The driver -- identified by neighbors as Vicki Skielnik -- was able to get out of her Toyota and wound up limping across the lawn as neighbors rushed over to help.
"When I ran over to her I was calling 911 at the same time the she collapsed," said Buzin. "She kept saying, "it got away from me, it got away from me.'"
She suffered minor injuries while Betty Painter -- who was trapped under the car for 20 minutes as the tires spun -- suffered more serious injuries that left her in critical but stable condition, said police. The 73-year-old underwent surgery for a broken ankle Friday afternoon.
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The wreck left the sedan sticking out of the side of the kitchen – narrowly missing the home’s utility meters and a fire hydrant.
Before striking the home, Skielnik had pulled out of her own driveway, struck the garage of a home across the cul-de-sac then backed up through a few yards before going into the home where the woman ate breakfast.
The wreck left the home uninhabitable, said the county building inspector. Crews worked through the day to clear debris and board up the home.
The crash also left the garage door of the other home badly damaged but kept the structure of the home intact, said police.
Police were unsure what Skielnik to lose control and were checking to see if she suffered some sort of medical emergency.
She was issued a citation for careless driving.
