Garbage truck crashes into two Atlanta houses

ATLANTA - A line of debris litters two properties in southwest Atlanta after an unmanned Atlanta garbage truck crashed into a home Wednesday morning.

Thaddius Hodges was jolted out of bed by that crash.

“I was just doing the school drill like get down. I thought it was a tornado, people shooting at the same time,” Hodges told FOX 5 News.

Hodges was home with his older brother, father and grandmother when the unmanned truck careened down a hill plowing into their house and a carport next door here on Kimball Road at around 10:45 a.m.

Hodges’ 78-year-old grandmother was injured and taken to the hospital. She was being checked out for a possible head injury.

Neighbor L.D. Stanley watched from his front window as the truck rolled past his house.

“That vehicle it started down the hill, it was about four or five houses up the street and it hit the curb and missed that telephone pole there. It probably landed in the safest spot it could possibly land in," Stanley said.

Atlanta Public Works Deputy Commissioner James Jackson said the driver applied the truck’s safety brake before getting out of the vehicle, which is standard procedure, and believed the accident may have been caused by a mechanical malfunction.

“Procedure was followed as far as we could tell preliminary,” Jackson said.

Debris was strewn around the area at the site of the impact, which took out a carport.