SUV Crashes on Roof of House in St. Louis

This will not buff out.

byGabriel Loewenberg|
SUV Crashes on Roof of House in St. Louis
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A handful of people had a real bad day in St. Louis, MO on Sunday. In the Walnut Park West neighborhood, an SUV sped down a street, ran a stop sign, hopped a curb, and ended up on the roof of a house. The driver of the SUV was eventually taken to the hospital in critical condition. No one was in the home at the time of the accident, but the owner was less than thrilled to find an SUV sticking out of the roof when he returned. 

So how exactly does an SUV end up on, or really in, the roof of a house? Normally, cars end up stuck in the side of a building, or even in the pool. Several factors and events all came together to create the worse-case scenario for this to happen. 

First and foremost, speeding and reckless driving caused this accident. A witness told KMOV that the SUV was going "maybe 80-90 mph." While most people are not accurate judges of speed, it's very likely this is a good guess, based on the end result. If the driver hadn't of been speeding and blowing through stop signs, this obviously would not have happened. But they were, and it did. 

Besides the speeding, there are another of other factors at play here that led to the SUV getting lodged in the roof of the house. As they say in the real estate business, "Location, location, location." This house is located at a "T" intersection, directly in the path of the oncoming traffic from the street that ends. That particular street has a very long stretch of road with only one other stop sign. 

Based on Google Street View of the area, this street probably doesn't get too much cross-traffic from the few streets that do cross it. This is the type of street that seems very inviting for morons. Other witnesses said that this particular intersection is a hot-spot for speeding and accidents. Even the home owner said that something like this had happened 20 to 30 years ago, when his mother lived in the house. There is nothing wrong with driving fast, you just don't do it on street lined with houses where the posted speed limit is 25 mph.

As for how exactly the SUV got all the way up there, you have physics to thank for that. The house that ended up with an SUV-sized hole in the roof might as well have a target painted on it. It sits at across from the end of the street in the "T" intersection. It also sits atop a slight embankment. When the SUV came rocketing down the street, it went up the embankment like a ski jump, launching it into the air and on to the roof. Ironically, based on the Street View of the intersection, there is probably a stop sign embedded in the front of the SUV. 

Screenshot via Google StreetView

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the homeowner both recently retired and paid off the house. That's the real tragedy here. Some guy who should just be enjoying life comes home to find is his house destroyed with an SUV sticking out of the roof. Maybe the driver has insurance, and all will be taken care of. It's not like anyone can claim that the house just came out of nowhere and jumped in front of the SUV.

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