Car Lands On Roof, Knocks Out Power to Thousands

The airborne car, with three passengers, damaged two homes; injuries reported

A car went airborne and landed on a roof, knocking out power to more than 3,000 customers in Idaho. — There are no official statistics on the number of cars that end up on rooftops, but we’ve seen this story more than once. In this case, the car took out more than 3,000 electric customers in the process.
— Image courtesy of Dan Leavitt

This week, news from Nampa, Idaho, part of the Boise metropolitan area, was shocking due to its widespread impact. A car became airborne and knocked out power for over 3,000 residents before landing on the roof of a house.

Nampa police received a 911 call last Sunday morning saying that a car had left the road and landed on the roof of a home on the east side of the city. The Nampa Police released a statement saying emergency responders arrived on the scene and reported that a car had crashed into a chimney and came to rest on the roof of a house.

The police said the car was traveling “at a high rate of speed, failed to navigate a curve … hit a berm in a yard, went airborne, struck a chimney of one home and landed on the rooftop of a second home.

No other vehicles were involved but The Idaho Statesman, which first reported the news, said the accident knocked out power to more than 3,000 customers. When first responders arrived, they found a car with three adults on the roof of the home.

The driver and backseat passenger both went to area hospitals; the front-seat passenger was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. No one in either home was hurt; both houses had extensive damage.

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Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).

Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction, and community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law, and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage.

Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business.