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Oct. 10--When a collision rocked a normally tranquil Marilla intersection this morning, Liz Breyer was sipping her morning coffee.
"It was just a pop and I ran out," said Breyer, a mother who was sitting in her house just as a car and sport utility vehicle hurtled toward her front porch. "I opened my front door and there was a car near the porch and the girl was screaming, so you know we needed to call 911.
"They really needed to get her out because the car just went up in flames."
Thanks to the quick work of a neighbor and a fast-thinking Erie County sheriff's deputy, that's exactly what happened.
Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries after the car struck the SUV at Bullis and Eastwood roads about 8:15 a.m. A westbound Dodge Avenger, driven by 43-year-old Cindy Casey of Attica, struck a northbound Chevrolet Tracker, driven by Kaitlyn Boyce, 19, of Marilla, who had failed to yield the right of way at the two-way-stop intersection, according to deputies.
Both vehicles tumbled onto Breyer's front lawn, where the Jeep, resting on its passenger side, eventually burst into flames.
"I could see smoke," said Sheriff's Deputy Jason Weiss. "As I assessed it, more flames came out of the passenger compartment. At that point, I decided to take her out of the vehicle."
Steve Kibler, who lives adjacent to the crash scene, then helped Weiss pull Casey and her 18-year-old female passenger from the Avenger. The passenger's name was not released by authorities.
Breyer, her daughter and her brother-in-law got out the back door as the flames melted the porch's siding. Firefighters from the Marilla Fire Company put out the flames and inspected the house.
All three victims were taken by ambulance to Erie County Medical Center. Boyce suffered a pelvic injury and Casey and her passenger suffered minor, non-life-threatening injuries.
Breyer gathered with two neighbors across the road, her manicured, hilly lawn now a mess of melted plastic, shattered glass and sleeping bags and other items from the trunk of the charred, compact SUV. The Avenger's bumper had been ripped and lay about 10 feet away at the intersection, and the front of the car was crunched in.
"I hope that she's not hurt any worse [than we saw]," Breyer said of Boyce. "She was just scared."
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