Terri Hogan/The Gazette A firefighter and tow truck operator watch as the vehicle is pulled from the garage of an Olney Mill Road home.

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Terri Hogan/The Gazette A 70-year-old man drove his vehicle into the garage of an Olney Mill Road home on Sept. 29.
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Terri Hogan/The Gazette A firefighter from the Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department and a tow truck operator watch as the vehicle is pulled from the garage of an Olney Mill Road home.

Terri Hogan/The Gazette A firefighter and tow truck operator watch as the vehicle is pulled from the garage of an Olney Mill Road home.

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An Olney family is displaced from their home after a car crashed through their garage on Sept. 26.

A blue Honda Accord was traveling eastbound in the 19500 block of Olney Mill Road at about 11:30 a.m. when it left the road and went up onto the grassy area in front of Belmont Elementary School. After striking several trees, the car drove through a fence and into the garage, lodging into a house about 5 feet off the ground, said Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department Chief George Brown.

The driver, a 70-year-old male, was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said Officer Janelle Smith, a Montgomery County police spokeswoman.

“We are not sure if it was a medical incident, or if he pushed the wrong pedal,” Smith said.

Homeowner Pat Soper, who was home at the time of the incident, has lived in the home for nearly 40 years.

“I was sitting in the pink chair in my living room with the dog on my lap, and I must have been dozing,” she said. “I heard a noise and looked up, and a car had come through the garage right into the living room.”

Her husband Frank was also home at the time; neither were injured, they said.

Chip Russell, Pat Soper’s son, said that his mother was really lucky.

“Thank God school wasn’t open today, because it could have been really tragic,” he said.

The house is adjacent to Belmont Elementary, separated by a driveway to the school’s parking lot. School was closed today in observance of Yom Kippur.

Russell, who owns a local design/build firm, said he immediately had the utilities cut off to the home and will begin repairs as soon as possible.

Soper said they will stay with relatives in the area until they can return to their home.

Kelly Hale, a resident of Olney Mill Road, said that her daughter, Alexa, 7, and a friend had been watching cars go down the road in front of their house, located about two blocks west of the Soper’s home.

“They told me about a blue car that had just driven down the street going really fast and swerving,” she said. “Then I heard the sirens.”

thogan@gazette.net