Driver Dies When Corvette Flies Through Home’s Roof

A Corvette reportedly speeding along a hillside street in south Laguna Beach on Friday apparently left the pavement and flew 500 feet before crashing through the roof of a house three streets below as the homeowners were getting ready for dinner.

“It was incredible. The car crashed into our master bedroom and bathroom and disintegrated,” homeowner Sterling Johnson said. “The battery and car parts went flying through the house.”

The driver died at the scene, Johnson said. The car and the body were still inside the house about five hours after the 5:30 p.m. crash while police investigated.

Johnson said he and his wife, Laura, were in another part of the house, almost ready to sit down for dinner, when the car smashed through the roof.

“We could’ve very easily been injured. The car exploded and started a fire, which I put out with a garden house and fire extinguisher before the fire department arrived,” Johnson said. “The fire department and police said they’ve never seen anything like this.”

Authorities did not release the name of the driver, but neighbors identified him as a 24-year-old Three Arch Bay man. The Orange County coroner’s office confirmed a traffic fatality but did not release details.

The Johnsons said they moved to the house on North Vista de Catalina in Three Arch Bay three months ago from Scottsdale, Ariz.

Johnson and neighbors said the Corvette was traveling on Vista Del Sol, three streets above, when it left the roadway and took to the air.

“Apparently, the driver was going at a high rate of speed. I mean, he flew 500 feet over a steep embankment. The car didn’t slide or fall over. It flew,” he said.

Johnson, speaking from home at 9:30 p.m., said he could not even begin to estimate the damage to his home. “Right now, I’m more interested in getting the car and the body removed from my house. We’re pretty shaken up by this,” he said.