Woman shares experience after truck crashes into Perry home

WEST HAVEN — A day after she was struck by a truck that crashed into her house in Perry, a woman shared her harrowing experience for the first time on Friday.

Bree Walton, still walking on crutches and showing significant bruises and scrapes, said she had just barely put her baby, Laynee, down for a nap in the next room on Thursday and was wearing her AirPods as she was folding laundry.

"I heard tires screeching, and so I hurried and looked out my blinds, and then I just saw the truck flying at me," Walton recalled. "I was able to take two or three steps, and then (it) just crushed into the wall, and that's all I really remember."

According to Perry Police Chief Scott Hancey, a northbound truck was reported as driving "erratically" on Highway 89 before it collided with a car, veered off the road, went down an embankment and crashed into Walton's house.

Investigators said they suspected alcohol may have played a factor. They said the driver was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

"I've always had that fear because it's a busy road, but not going and hitting my house," Walton said.

She said she believed she was briefly knocked unconscious by the collision.

"I just remember being hit by everything and waking up and trying to get out of there as fast as I could," Walton said.

Her husband, Gavon Walton, was not home at the time and was shocked to receive a call about what happened.

"You hear about things like that happening, but not to this extent," he said. "Our house is small — only like 750 square feet — so the truck was pretty much in our entire house, and it's a crazy event."

He said they were just determining their next steps.

"(We're) just barely figuring it out and trying to get out what we can salvage from the house and see what they can do to repair it," he said.

He believed it could be up to a year before they move back into the home, if ever.

"I don't want to go back," Bree Walton said. "I don't think I could ever live there again."

Family members set up a GoFundMe account to help cover the couple's costs.

The husband and wife expressed gratitude for the support already shown to them by family, friends and the community.

"(I'm) just glad that I'm OK, (Laynee's) OK, we're all OK," Bree Walton said. "That's the most important thing."

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