Pickup crashes through front of Fairmount house on Fort Worth’s south side

A retired ballet dancer was asleep in his Fairmount home on the city’s south side when he awoke to the sound of a pickup truck crashing through his future investment.

Todd Edson, 53, formerly of Fort Worth Dallas Ballet (now Texas Ballet Theater) said he was awakened at about 4 a.m. Sunday by a loud noise that sounded a like a “bolt of lightning” striking his house. Instead, it was a Dodge Ram pickup.

Edson said that luckily he was sleeping in his house next door in the 1700 block of South Adams Street at the corner of West Jefferson when the truck came barreling through his vacant fixer-upper.

No one was injured, but Edson said the force knocked the house off the foundation, which he had just raised 15 inches. He said he has been working on the house for the past four years. It has been vacant since the early 1980s.

Edson said Fort Worth police officers told him the driver had “fallen asleep or something,” and they didn’t make an arrest.

“He must have been going pretty fast though, because he hit three cars before he continued across the street and through my front yard,” Edson said.

Neighbors took photos of at least three vehicles with smashed doors and shattered windows down the block.

“I feel for the guy — he’s in a tough spot,” Edson said. “It was a pretty major accident.”

Neighbor Greg Watterson, 47, said a “crazy noise” woke him up at 3:50 a.m Sunday and he looked out the window to find the pickup driver spinning his wheels, trying to keep going through the house or back out.

“...Either way he was gunning it,” Watterson said. “I walked outside and there was just glass everywhere down the block.”

He said the young man was sitting on the curb once he got out of his truck and some people showed up with a blanket. Watterson said he believes the man lives on the block with his family.

Watterson has lived in a duplex next to the house for 20 years, and his father owns The Old Home Supply in the 1800 block of College Avenue in the neighborhood.

Because there were no arrests or injuries, police created an accident report and not a offense report, meaning they could not provide more information Sunday night, Cpl. Tracey Knight, a Fort Worth police spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

Edson said he won’t know the future of his house until Monday, when he can meet with various city officials and talk about his options.

This story was originally published February 28, 2016 at 8:25 PM with the headline "Pickup crashes through front of Fairmount house on Fort Worth’s south side."