ITEM PHOTO BY DAVID WILSON
A sports car crashed Monday night into the side of Frank Perry’s home at 630 Chestnut St.
By GAYLA CAWLEY and DAVID WILSON
LYNN — The 38-year-old Lynn driver who drove into a Chestnut Street home Monday night was administered Narcan at the scene of the accident after an apparent opioid overdose, according to police.
Lynn Police Lt. Rick Donnelly said the call for the car into the 630 Chestnut St. home came in shortly before 10:30 p.m. The male driver, whom he declined to identify, was issued a citation for heroin possession, OUI drugs, marked lanes violation and reckless operation of a motor vehicle.
Officers found a bag of heroin in the front seat of his car, Donnelly said. The driver was unresponsive when the police and firefighters arrived. After he was given Narcan, or Naloxone, the overdose drug, he was able to walk himself to the ambulance. He was taken to Union Hospital with no apparent injuries, Donnelly said.
“There was a medical issue and the guy was traveling at a high rate of speed,” said Lynn District Fire Chief Tim Collier.
Collier said there were no injuries to anyone inside the home and the occupants were able to stay there for the night. But he said the house had to be shored up before the car could be pulled away from it, because its foundation had been compromised.
Homeowner Frank Perry, 60, said he was sound asleep and shocked when the sports car barreled into his single-family home. Also home was his wife, stepson, dog, bird and three ferrets. He said he just bought the house in September 2015.
Perry said the house was all messed up from the crash. He had just bought all brand-new furniture, he added.
“I got woken up and I thought what the (expletive) is this?” he said. “I’m going to stay here tonight. All I’m thinking is ka-ching, lawsuit.”
Neighbor Steve Covill said he was falling asleep when the crash happened, and thought, “What the hell?”
Perry, who works for a big seafood company, said he’s taking a few days off from work because of the accident.
The next morning police responded another car into a house, this time at 71 Fernwood Ave. The 85-year-old male driver told police someone had cut him off, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and hit the home just before 9 a.m. He wasn’t cited and was taken to Salem Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Donnelly said.
Donnelly said the homeowner, a 66-year-old woman, was home at the time of the crash, and was uninjured.
There was structural damage to the house from the crash, and Lynn Inspectional Services determined the building had to be stabilized before the car could be towed away. The woman was able to go back inside afterward, Donnelly said.
Donnelly said the car caused extensive damage to the screen porch, with columns to the roof compromised. The foundation to the dwelling was also damaged, as well as shrubs and trash barrels.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at gcawley@itemlive.com. David Wilson can be reached at dwilson@itemlive.com.