ST CATHARINES, ONT.—What sounded like a head-on collision to Tom Murray from across the street seemed like a bomb explosion to Rose Watts.

Watts, a retired GM worker, was upstairs in her home in St. Catharines Wednesday morning when she heard a loud bang.

“I thought ‘Oh my God, what the heck was that? I thought somebody threw a bomb through the door.”

There were no explosives involved. Instead, a van drove clear through her semi-detached home at Dundonald St.

The driver, a 52-year-old man, was treated in hospital for minor injuries.

Watts said she was lying down upstairs at around 9 a.m. and just getting ready to come down.

“I was going to come down to feed my cats,” she said, explaining she usually gets up earlier in the day. “I would have been downstairs. I say someone was watching over me.”

Murray, who was in his kitchen across the street at the time, said he heard screeching tires and a loud crash. He ran outside expecting to see signs of a head-on collision.

“I was looking around for a car crash and then I finally noticed the front of her house was missing,” he said.

Murray ran inside the house, calling for Watts. He stayed there, waiting for her to get dressed in order to assist her down the destroyed stairs.

Lyle Piper, who lives down the street, ran over when he heard the crash. With Murray trying to help Watts, he ran around the house to check on the driver, who was conscious in the van. Piper said he had a bad cut to his hand and looked dazed, but otherwise didn’t look too badly hurt.

“I think he’s very lucky he wasn’t killed,” Piper said.

Niagara Regional Police Const. Chris Sirie said police suspect the driver had a medical condition but will also likely be looking into whether the mechanical condition of the van played a role.

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He said he’s never seen an accident like this before.

“I’ve never seen a car go right through a house,” he said. “This is something — that was quite a big accident and thankfully nobody was seriously injured.”