Car crashes into Knox home
— Photo from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office
Police respond on Friday night to an accident on the Berne-Altamont Road in Knox in which a car struck a home.
KNOX — A car crashed into a Knox home Friday evening, injuring the driver and three children who were passengers. No one in the wood-frame house was hurt.
Erica L. Saunders was driving a 2008 Cadillac CTS on Route 156, called the Berne-Altamont Road, in Knox. Saunders failed to negotiate a curve, lost control, crossed the eastbound lane and struck two corners of the house at 1943 Berne-Altamont Rd. at around 6:43 p.m., according to Albany County Sheriff’s Inspector Charles Higgins. She was not charged.
Saunders, who is in her 40s, lives in Rensselaer County, and was not impaired by drugs or alcohol and was not speeding, said Higgins. Saunders appeared to be unfamiliar with the road, he said, leading her to crash.
As Saunders went over into the opposite lane and off the road, she hit a snowbank, said Higgins, and skidded over ice and snow before she hit the left corner of the house with the side of her car and then spun into a cement staircase on the right corner of the house before the car stopped.
“The car was not driveable,” said Higgins, of the condition of the Cadillac.
The home in which several people live, is owned by Wallace Quay Jr., said Higgins, and an unknown occupant of the building called police at the time of the crash. The extent of damage to the home is not yet known.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the call at about 7:08 p.m. on Jan. 19 and found the Cadillac in the front yard of the home, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. The Knox Volunteer Fire Company, Guilderland Emergency Medical Services, Helderberg Ambulance Squad, and the Altamont Rescue Squad also responded to the scene.
Saunders was driving with another adult and three children in the car. She was taken to St. Peter’s Hospital and the children were taken to Albany Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release.
Property at 1943 Berne-Altamont Road belongs to Wallace Quay Jr. and Ronald A. Quay, and has a taxable value of $139,000 and a full-market value of $232,167, according to the Albany County tax rolls.
