Melrose driver smashes car into front of home

A driver crashed into the front door of a Melrose home on Wednesday morning, police said. Bruce Winslow

A driver crashed into the front door of a Melrose home Wednesday morning because of a medical emergency he had after leaving a nearby hospital, officials said.

Police were dispatched to the home at 49 East Emerson St. at 11:17 a.m., Sergeant Brian Ladner said.

"It looked like it hopped the curb and went over the front stairs and straight into the front door," Ladner said.

The Associated Press, citing WBZ, reported that the unidentified 25-year-old Revere man driving the car said he had just given blood at the hospital down the street in Melrose.

Melrose Fire Captain Mike Sullivan said the driver was treated at the scene for a medical issue. The home was empty at the time of the crash, and no injuries were reported.

The car came to a stop in the front door of the home, said a neighbor, Bruce Winslow. Bruce Winslow

Sullivan said there was significant damage to the home's porch and front door, as well as the body of the Ford sedan.

WBZ reported that the home's owner, Paul Mastronardi, had just rebuilt the porch.

Bruce Winslow, a neighbor who lives a few houses down from the crash, said he was watering his lawn when he heard an "incredible sound."

"He jumped up on the front porch somehow," Winslow said. "It's gotta be 7 or 8 feet above the sidewalk. It took out the front steps. It was crazy."

Winslow said the car appeared to have been coming from the cross street, Rowe Street, where Melrose-Wakefield Hospital is located.

"A mailman was on the porch 20 seconds before the car hit," Winslow said. "I was talking to him, and he heard the whole thing because he was closer than I was. He would have [been] killed if he was on the porch."

Winslow said no one in the home appeared to be hurt from the crash. The condition of the driver has not been released.

No other information was immediately available.