Pauline Morello wanted to sleep downstairs, but her husband urged her to come up to bed.

Joseph Morello’s simple act of love may have saved his wife of 57 years from being seriously injured Wednesday morning when a car slammed into the couple’s east-end house.

“I heard a big boom. I thought it was thunder,” said Pauline, who awoke around 4 a.m. to see a Ford Mustang resting against the front of her Culver Drive duplex.



A man suffered serious injuries when the car he was driving crashed into a house Wednesday at 1732 Culver Dr. Pauline Morello, top photo, said she was awakened about 4 a.m. by the crash, which ripped sections of brick off the two-storey home and left it with structural damage. A neighbour said two men walked away from the crash scene. (Supplied)

The Mustang was driving east on Culver Drive when it hopped the curb, drove across the Morellos’ lawn and crashed into their house.

The collision ripped sections of brick off the two-storey home and left it with structural damage, said Gerry Spina, owner of First General restoration, who pegged damage at $40,000.

The impact could have been worse if the car hadn’t struck a large evergreen on the front lawn. Metal pieces from the vehicle were embedded in the trunk of the tree that was left canted by the collision.

Anita Garnet, who lives in the other side of the duplex, was sleeping in her living room when she heard the vehicle hit her neighbours’ home, metres from where she was lying on the sofa.

“If that tree wasn’t there, I’d be dead right now,” said Garnet, gesturing toward the battered evergreen.

She said she went outside and saw the damaged convertible — blood splattered on the inside, the driver’s side airbag deployed — and two men heading west on Culver Drive.

“I was screaming at the guys as they were walking away,” said Garnet, who called 911 before checking on the Morellos.

“They were both really upset,” she said of the elderly couple who have lived in the house since it was built in 1975.

In the living room, where the couple’s wedding photo hangs on the wall next to a Maltese flag, furniture was strewn about.

“The TV has been pushed right to the other side of the room,” Pauline said. “It’s a mess.”

Police said a man who showed up at hospital with serious, but not life-threatening injuries, was the driver of the Mustang.

No charges had been laid Wednesday, Const. Sandasha Bough said.

Still rattled by the close call, Pauline said vehicles often speed along on Culver Drive, a twisty road southwest of Oxford Street and Clarke Road East.

“It’s like a speedway.”

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

twitter.com/DaleatLFPress