It's one thing to have an accident see a car crashed into your home. It's another thing to have the destroyed vehicle - and the accompanying mess - still there almost a month later.
On Monday, Dec. 16 at 4:45 p.m., a Black Lexus SUV drove up against the north side wall of the West Oak Village Retirement Home facility, near Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital on Third Line
The car was was being driven by a 64-year-old man, and the vehicle drove through a fence surrounding the building before entering the facilities outdoor sitting area and smashing up against the building.
Emergency vehicles attended the scene of the crash, and once there, they examined the driver. He had no vital signs and he was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
"The death was determined to be from a medical episode and not as a result of the collision," said Const. Ryan Anderson with the Halton Regional Police Service.
So if this happened before Christmas, why hasn't the wreckage been cleaned up yet?
Following the accident, Anderson was told by building inspectors to not remove the car from the building because the "structural integrity of the building" could be at risk if the car is removed.
As a result, the vehicle is still in the exact same place it was on the day of the accident. It's now been 22 days after the accident took place, as of publication here on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.
The retirement home provided this statement when asked about the vehicle still being on the property and the timeline for when it may be removed, saying to Oakville News, "We expect that removal of the car will be complete by the end of the week."
"We worked have closely with the architectural and engineering experts to ensure the car could be removed safely and without compromising the structural integrity of the building. We had originally anticipated that the car would be removed earlier this month, but out of an abundance of caution, extra time was taken to confirm that all structural considerations had been fully assessed and that these areas of the home were completely safe for residents and team members to return."
West Oak also told Oakville News, "After confirming the structural integrity of the building had not been compromised, we had to wait for approval from a third-party insurance provider before coordinating the removal of the car."
Due to this event, interior repairs needed to be done to the building since some rooms inside West Oak Village were damaged in the accident.
These repairs caused eight residents to be transported to Westside Long-Term Care Home in Etobicoke on a temporary basis.
Those repairs have now been completed, and as of today, the eight residents have returned to their rooms.
The residents returned to their rooms earlier than anticipated as they were scheduled to return to West Oak Village on Friday, January 10.