Passenger van hops curb, crashes into Cape house

Everyone walked away from a car accident around 2:30 p.m. Sunday at 1358 Kingsway Drive that left part of a house demolished and the dog that was home quite traumatized. A green four-door Honda hit the back driver's side of a 15-passenger van at the intersection of Leroy and Kingsway drives, causing the van to fishtail for a few feet and then lose control, according to Sgt. Rick Schmidt of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. The van went through the yard, missed a tree and crashed into the house at 1358 Kingsway Drive. Schmidt called the fire department after smelling natural gas, which he said probably came from the natural gas fireplace in the living room where the van hit. "The fire department shut the gas off, the neighbor took the dog," and the police were waiting on the homeowner to be located, Schmidt said. "She just took off about 30 minutes before all this happened," said Shirley Karraker, a neighbor who called the homeowner's brother to come up from Scott City, Mo. Karraker said parts of the home had just been remodeled. "It was so nice; just so pretty." Schmidt said all the drivers had insurance, and no one was hurt.