AUSTIN — A man may have been suffering from seizures when he crashed his van completely through a brick wall in an Austin garage, one witness said.
The accident occurred at 7:23 p.m. when a 30-year-old man careened through a 14-by-30 brick garage in an alley at Cicero Street and Madison Avenue, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
Darren High, 48, was in a nearby store when he heard a "whoosh" and the sound of two loud crashes, he said.
He immediately ran to the source of the wreck to find a grey minivan that had apparently hopped a curb and drove at a fairly high speed through a vacant lot before careening through a brick wall.
High, still dusty from his attempts to help the man, said he then broke through one of the vehicles windows in an attempt to pull the man free.
"[The driver] said, 'What happened?' and I said, 'You were in an accident — you're in a building,'" High said.
The man told High that he suffered from seizures — a detail which may explain why the man lost control of his vehicle at a high enough speed to hop the curb and drive across the empty lot before breaking through the wall.
According to High, the man was moving and talking after the wreck, despite the blood visible on his pants. The jaws of life were eventually used by firefigthers to extricate him, High said.
"I think I dropped my license [in the wreckage]," High said, checking his pants. "I just hope he's OK."
Fire officials said the man was transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital in stable condition.
