Man hospitalized after driver crashes into Spokane Valley home

Sep. 7--One man was hospitalized after a driver traveled across a lane of traffic, over a boulder, through a chain-link fence and into the front of a Spokane Valley home.

Homeowner Kris Redmond said her husband, Gary, was home alone Friday afternoon working on his computer when the SUV crashed through the front of their house.

When Redmond arrived at their home, near Progress Elementary School, she said her husband had already been taken to Deaconess Hospital for a back injury and a potential concussion. The man who police said had been driving the SUV was in the back of a patrol car.

Redmond said a friend had to drive her home from her job in the HR department for the City of Spokane. Her husband Gary is a former Spokane County Sheriff's Department Deputy and recently retired as the chief of police in Reardan. He currently works as a driving instructor, but will have to take time off, she said.

Redmond's son, Todd Redmond, said he had a chance to talk to his father on the phone after he was hospitalized. He said his father was still undergoing tests but was making jokes with hospital staff after he was checked in.

Sheriff's office Spokesman Mark Gregory said the man who was driving the car, Brandon J. Anderson, told deputies he fell asleep at the wheel and had been working long hours before the crash. Anderson showed no signs of impairment and cooperated with law enforcement, Gregory said.

He was arrested for negligent driving, driving with a suspended license and no proof of insurance. He was also arrested for an unrelated Department of Corrections warrant, which Gregory said was likely for violating the terms of his release from prison.

Redmond said it will probably cost at least $90,000 to repair the damage to their home.

The SUV drove through the wall, crumbling the cinder block in her dining room. She said the impact also cracked the rest of the walls in the room, and that section of her home may need to be rebuilt. The SUV, which was loaded with wood, left skid marks over a boulder at the edge of her driveway, crushed a fence and also broke pots full of flowers.

She said the front of their home is made from layers of cinder block and rebar, which likely slowed the vehicle before her husband was hit.

"The only thing that saved my husband was good contractors back in 1954," Redmond said. "Cinder block, rebar -- that's what saved him. If it was a wood house, he would be dead."

Redmond said she has home insurance, and is looking for contractors who know how to work with brick and cinder block.

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