Crime & Safety
Outside Playtime Saves Family From Route 31 Car Crash Tuesday
The Kettlewells likely avoided serious injury and possibly death by going outside for fresh air. A car drove into their home Tuesday afternoon and caused extensive damage.
Theresa Kettlewell's decision to go outside on Tuesday with her young son Noah might have been the difference between life and death.
"We were playing outside, (husband Scott) had just gotten home and we were talking about going in to make dinner," Theresa Kettlewell said. "My son didn't want to go outside but I told him it's such a nice day and I made him come outside."
The Batavia Township family was not inside their rented home that afternoon when a 1999 Chrysler Cirrus came smashing into the front of the house, located east of the intersection of Route 31 and Mooseheart Rd. The driver, 19-year-old Max J. Dobner of Aurora, was the only person inside the Cirrus. He was later pronounced dead. To read more about what happened, click .
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"We heard glass shattering and something that sounded like an explosion," Kettlewell's husband Scott said, standing outside with the car still sitting inside his son Noah's room.
The car went right into Noah's room and smashed his crib. The car's motor fell out of the car, kept going and landed in a room in the east part of the house, said Steve Miller, North Aurora fire chief.
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"It was really the strangest thing," Miller said.
The length of the ranch-style home runs north-south. The car hit the northwest part of the home. At the time of the crash, the family was out back by the southeast part of the home, according to their description.
Parts of the car were everywhere after the crash, including on the roof of the house.
"The car went all the way through and busted pipes in the bathroom, that's why there's water leaking into the basement," Kettlewell said.
Kettlewell was not certain why the crash happened. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash.
The Kettlewells have family and friends nearby, but they were not sure Tuesday afternoon where they were going to stay after the crash.
Noah appeared in good spirits after the crash, but his parents were shaken.
"I don't know what we're going to do now," Kettlewell said, shaking her head.
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