One woman was taken to the hospital Wednesday morning after firefighters say her car hit a retaining wall, flew about 100 yards while flipping head over tail and smashed through a fence and gazebo before catching fire.
Eastbound Palmer Park was closed just west of the intersection for about three hours while crews worked to clean up the crash.The fire department ventilated the home for smoke and brought heavy rescue crews to the scene to remove the car.Graves also had a warrant for her arrest on a misdemeanor charge, according to police.Witnesses say the crash looked like the scene out of a movie with the Oldsmobile flying as high as 12 feet in the air as clothes inside flew out.Police say Graves was driving a 1997 green Oldsmobile west on Palmer Park Boulevard about 10:20 a.m. at a high rate of speed when she ran a red light at Academy Boulevard and lost control of her vehicle. It went off the south side of the road, hit a retaining wall and went airborne, according to police.The car's driver, 45-year-old Crystal Graves, was pulled from the burning car by two Colorado Springs police officers who were nearby and saw the crash. She was taken to the hospital and was in serious condition Wednesday, according to police, but is expected to survive.Smaldino said the owners had recently put up a new backyard fence and put a new roof on the gazebo."It was like playing matchbox cars at home," said witness Adam Weitzel.According to police, Graves faces multiple charges including reckless driving and possession of drug paraphernalia - though police say that drugs and alcohol weren't factors in the crash.Aside from the backyard damage, a window of the home was broken when the woman's purse flew out of the Oldsmobile and went through the window.
Eastbound Palmer Park was closed just west of the intersection for about three hours while crews worked to clean up the crash.
