Driver says street racers caused him to smash into house in southeast Atlanta

ATLANTA — A driver says street racers caused him to smash into a home in southeast Atlanta.

The woman who lives at the home says she is grateful she is alive after the car hit the spot she had been sitting in moments before.

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Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach was at the scene Wednesday, where he learned a car went through an intersection nearby, went down a grass embankment, and into the corner of a house on Burroughs Avenue.

A neighbor showed Gehlbach photos of the scene, show a brand new, bright yellow Dodge Challenger that crashed into the house in the 2000 block of Burroughs Avenue around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

A man, woman, and a toddler were inside when it crashed into the house.

Mary Bledsoe, 86, lives in the home and said she sits in the front room where the car crashed into the house every night.

“It sounded like a boom,” Bledsoe said.

She said she had just gotten up to go change into pajamas and was about to sit down to watch TV when she heard the loud boom.

Another family member also told Gehlbach she was on the porch just seconds before the crash.
They told Gehlbach what the man in the car said caused the accident.

“He said that a car cut him off and he lost control of it,” Bledsoe said. “He said that two cars were speeding, racing going some way. He swerved, but there was no other car on the street but him.”

She went outside to find a car in the space where she had just been sitting.

She said the car’s horn was blaring, and that a man, a woman and their small child were inside.

Police said the man was driving, but witnesses Gehlbach talked to said they saw the woman, the mother of the toddler, get out from the driver’s seat.

The man told police it was a rental car. He was cited for failure to maintain lane.

With the car pulled out, the wall was gone, leaving behind broken glass and the one thing Bledsoe most treasured: her flowers and big pots.

“I’m blessed,” she said.

The owner of the car that crashed into her house lives across the street from her, she said.

Cox Media Group