Not a beautiful day in the neighborhood

So, if a small pickup truck crashed through the front of your house and came to rest sitting about a third inside of the front room, why would the haz-mat team be called? If I knew my neighbors better, I could ask.

As I approached my house, on the way home from running a few errands this evening, I noticed flashing lights. That usually doesn't mean anything good has happened. When I got to the corner of the street about two houses from mine, I saw more lights, a police car, fire engine and a small red pickup truck embedded in the front room of the house across the street and down two from my house. That's not something you see every day. At the house on the corner, it looks like the truck ran up onto the front lawn at a fairly high rate of speed, came through the window, hit the framing around the window and stopped. The driver managed to miss the tree, so that's something. (Wouldn't have slowed the truck down much. I live in a fairly new neighborhood. The trees are still small.) I'm trying to figure out how it happened. There's no skid marks in the street and the driver didn't swerve any once s/he got on the grass. You can see the tire tracks in the lawn. A driver trying to make the turn onto the street, would have had the vehicle wheels turned, rather than straight, and probably would have continued to turn the wheels to try to avoid the house (and probably would have taken out the tree, but, as I said, the trees are small around here). So, that makes me wonder if the act was either intentional or committeed by an individual under the influence of something other than the nearby Whataburger.

From my front window, I've kept an eye on what's been going on and have wandered over twice just to get a better look. It's a bit odd. I live less than 100 yards from this house and I have never met the people who live there. I wonder if anyone was hurt (I arrived at least a while after the accident happened and saw no ambulance). I wonder if the people in the house, the people with the truck in the front room of their home (if this had happened to my home, I would be typing this while sitting right about where the truck's front bumper came to rest) are okay. I wonder if they're able to stay in the house tonight...or if they would want to. I wonder if they are in need of anything, a place to stay, someone to talk to...something. But I don't even know what the people who live there look like. I'm not certain what that says about them...or about me. Other than we don't live in a very close community. And I haven't made any real efforts to reach out to the people who live just a few feet on either side of me, let alone those who live just slightly farther.

The Haz-Mat truck just left. As did the police car and the wrecker with the extricated truck. The lights that were being provided by the fire engine are turned off. So, I guess things are wrapping up. I don't know if this is one of those instances where these people need their community to come together to surrond and support them. But I do know that I'm not a part of their community...not their real community anyway. I just live across the street and down two houses. I pray they've got people to be with them during this time. And I need to pray more than I would have and take and make the opportunity to get to know those who I live nearby.