Driver Hospitalized After Hitting House

An Ojai man who was trapped in his smoldering truck after it crashed into a house was reported in good condition Wednesday in Ojai Valley Community Hospital.

The house’s owners, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Howell of Ojai, arrived home Tuesday evening to find that a pickup had demolished a daughter’s bedroom, caught fire and trapped the driver inside.

Howell, a Ventura County fire captain, used a garden hose to put out the fire.

Other rescuers extricated Hubert Stevenson, 71, from the car.

He was treated for smoke inhalation, cuts, bruises and a possible seizure.

“He was lucky. They were all lucky,” Firefighter Mike Meadow said.

Stevenson was alone in the late-model truck.

Howell’s two teen-age daughters and a friend, Jason Arnold, 19, were watching television in the living room at 6:15 p.m. when the car plowed into their home in the 1400 block of Cuyama Road.

“Witnesses said it drove off the road, hit an orange tree, launched over the fence and kept accelerating clear into the house,” sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Liljekvist said.

Stevenson apparently had blacked out, he said.

No estimate of the damage was available.