Both occupants of the car were injured, but everyone in the house, including a small dog, was unharmed.

Fort Dodge police Sgt. Paul Samuelson said alcohol and speed are believed to be factors in the crash.

He said a “good Samaritan” who is not a police officer helped to apprehend the driver of the car after he tried to run away from the crash scene.

The chain of events that led to the car hitting the house at 1928 Sixth Ave. N. began at about 2 a.m.

-Submitted photo
A flatbed truck prepares to remove a 2015 Toyota Camry that crashed into the house at 1928 Sixth Ave. N. early Saturday morning. The crash happened as the car was fleeing police. The two occupants of the car were injured. No one in the house was injured.

According to Samuelson, the 2015 Toyota Camry was going north on 15th Street at First Avenue South and hit the rear of another northbound vehicle.

The Toyota went around the vehicle it had just struck and continued northbound on 15th Street.

Samuelson said the Toyota turned east onto First Avenue North with the vehicle it had struck following. Near First Avenue North and 15th Street, the driver of the vehicle that had been hit saw a police officer and told the officer what had happened.

The officer spotted the Toyota and turned on the patrol vehicle’s red and blue lights to attempt to stop it.

The Toyota did not stop. Instead, it traveled east and then north on 20th Street. At the corner of 20th Street and Sixth Avenue North, the car failed to stop at a stop sign, crossed Sixth Avenue North and crashed into the house.

Samuelson said officers got the driver out of the car and handcuffed him. The driver tried to run away.

That’s when the good Samaritan stopped him and “escorted him to the ground,” Samuelson said.

At the same time they were dealing with the driver, officers were checking on the occupants of the house.

“We feared the worst,” Samuelson said. “By the grace of God we did not have that.”

He said four people who were in the living room in the front of the house left that room just before the car hit it.

The other occupant of the car was trapped in the front passenger seat, and was removed by Fort Dodge firefighters. Both occupants of the car were transported to UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center.

The names of the driver and the others involved were not released because the crash remains under investigation. Samuelson said he believes numerous criminal charges will be filed.

He said the front area of the house is destroyed and the foundation appears to be damaged.

“There is no way they can live in the house,” he said.

The two-story house is owned by FDG Investments Inc., of Fort Dodge, according to online records of the Webster County assessor. It was built in 1915.