LYNN — The residents of two Lynnfield Street homes got a rude awakening early Wednesday morning when an erratic driver decimated the front porch of one house and crashed into two cars parked in the driveway next door.
The crash occurred shortly after 3 a.m. in a neighborhood located near Saint Mary’s Cemetery. Although there was substantial property damage, nobody was injured.
Lynn Police said the driver, identified as Alonzo Robinson, 21, fled the scene after the collision.
His abandoned car was later found on Bacheller Street and police tracked Robinson to his Lynn home, where he was issued a citation for allegedly leaving the scene of property damage and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, according to Police Lt. John Scannell.
“It woke my wife and my dog and my son up,” said John Foster, the owner of 139 Lynnfield St. “My wife woke me up pretty quick. She thought it was just an accident and she went out to the front room and realized they hit (our) house and she saw the car pulling away.”
Foster said the car had been driven over their yard before it struck the house. The suspect then smashed into a wooden wall that separated Foster’s home from his neighbors’ property at 141 Lynnfield and collided into two of their parked cars.
The two damaged cars had been towed from the scene by late morning, but the front of the Fosters’ home was still a mess. The yard was torn up and the front porch appeared to be almost completely sheared off. Wooden beams and the structure’s doors were strewn haphazardly on the ground near a car bumper.
However, Foster said the situation could have been much worse. His truck, which had been parked out front, was spared, and thankfully, the driver struck some of the steps on another neighbor’s property first, which redirected the car away from most of his house.
“Otherwise, he would have been in our living room,” said Foster. “It could have been a lot worse. There’s been a lot of bad accidents out there over the past year.”
Foster said his wife has been concerned about the traffic on the busy main road since they moved in about a year and a half ago. On more than one occasion, she’s mentioned her fears that their house could be hit by a car, which was the fate of another building two houses down, he said.
Unfortunately, his wife’s fears were realized on Wednesday.
“We’ll have to deal with it,” said Foster. “Hopefully, the guy is insured so we can go through that. I’m just glad they caught who did it.”
Married couple Bob and JoAnn Conlon, of 141 Lynnfield, said they slept through the crash that totaled at least one of their cars. They moved in about four years ago and have learned how to tune out the frequent noise from ambulance and fire truck sirens, which comes with living near what was formerly Union Hospital.
“We’re immune to the noise,” Bob said. “It was a pretty big crash and we both slept through it. We woke up to the doorbell.”
Bob said he wasn’t sure what was going on when he heard his doorbell ring at 3 a.m. His first thought was that someone was trying to break into their home, but then he noticed blue lights outside and a police officer standing outside their front door.
Barely awake, Bob said the officer’s next words, “I hate to tell you the bad news, but …” killed any chance of the couple catching any more sleep that morning.
After hitting their neighbor’s porch, Bob said the driver smashed into their Toyota Highlander, which pushed it five feet into their other car, a Buick Enclave. The Toyota is totaled, but the couple is hoping their Buick can still be repaired. In the meantime, they have borrowed their daughter’s car and are going to get rentals until they can buy a new car.
Sitting in their living room late Wednesday morning, the couple confessed to being exhausted. They had been awake since the crash and said it felt like it was already 5 p.m.
But like Foster, they were grateful the situation wasn’t more dire.
“He took the porch out, but he just kept going,” Bob said. “Thankfully, no one was hurt.”
It isn’t clear what caused the crash, which is under investigation by Lynn Police.
