‘It Sounded Like a Bomb Had Gone Off ‘: Elderly Woman, 91, Says Changing Her Nap Time Saved Her Life After Tractor-Trailer Tires Crashed Through Her Home, Destroying Bedroom

A pair of semi-truck tires smashed through the walls of a Georgia woman’s bedroom during her nap time. Luckily for her, the senior citizen missed her usual rest, opting to eat in another room – a decision that ultimately saved her life.

Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 30, wheels from an 18-wheeler truck crashed into Della Ogletree’s LaGrange, Georgia, home. Typically, a woman of routine, the 91-year-old slightly altered her daily activity based on a sudden urge, Atlanta station Fox 5 reports.

A woman of faith, Ogletree believes God’s grace kept her that day. She said, “Something just kept telling me go take your blood pressure, and your sugar and then go fix you something to eat.”

The LaGrange police department released a statement about the incident saying, “it appears that an 18-wheeler was traveling on the roadway when a set of tires with wheels (tandems) broke off the trailer and rolled, striking the home.”

“The tires and wheels were heavy enough and were moving fast enough to break through the exterior of the home,” law enforcement reported.

Listening to her intuition saved her life. While she was getting something to munch, the vehicle burst through both her bedroom and a second room before stopping.

When talking about the initial impact of the tire, Della shared, “It sounded like a bomb had gone off and I said what in the world is that.”

The nonagenarian was also impressed by the size of the tires, saying, “Those tires are almost as tall as I am.”

Aside from the damage to the walls, some of the elderly woman’s furniture has been damaged or destroyed, and after 50 years of living in one space, replacing some things is borderline impossible. Ogletree said she filed a claim with her insurance company in an effort to get the house repaired.

After seeing the damage to the house after the accident, her friend Barbara Davis described the accident as “unreal,” and marveled, “she could have been killed.”

The good news is she was not.

While this sounds like an unbelievable freak occurrence, the National Safety Council suggests large truck accidents happen more often than one might think.

Records show, “In 2020, 4,842 large trucks were involved in a fatal crash, a 4% decrease from 2019 but still a 33% increase since 2011. The involvement rate per 100 million large-truck miles traveled is down 5% from 2019, but up 18% since 2011.”

“Also in 2020,” the council reports, “107,000 large trucks were involved in crashes resulting in an injury, a 10% decrease from 2019.” Luckily, neither statistic can be applied to Ogletree.

There was one witness to the disaster, who said the truck’s tires detach from the vehicle and roll away down a road. However, the bystander only saw the breakdown of the trailer.

Very little information has been released, specifically whether the driver knew if and why the tires came off of the truck. Detectives are looking to find surveillance video to try and piece together the events of that late afternoon.

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