New Kensington mother of 4 grateful family was not home when car crashed into house
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Renata Diaz calls the living room of her New Kensington home her “bright place.”
But Diaz was grateful that she and her four young children — ranging from her newborn daughter to her 10-year-old son — weren’t there Monday morning.
On Tuesday, Diaz said that because her 3-year-old daughter wanted to go to her Head Start class, they weren’t there when a car crashed into the front porch of their Linden Avenue home, mangling the kids’ bikes and destroying the pumpkins just put out for Halloween.
“I’m just thankful I wasn’t here,” said Diaz, 34. “I’m usually on the porch at that time.”
Police later arrested the driver, Tyler Charles Bennett, 29, who neighbor Shirley Eckman said she saw climb out of the wrecked car and run away.
“I feel bad for the kids because of their bikes,” Eckman said. “They were just learning so good how to ride their bikes.”
Eckman said she was sitting on her porch with her morning coffee when she saw a burgundy Monte Carlo driving down Anderson Street at a high speed. A car speeding down Anderson isn’t new, she said, but the loud bang was.
Diaz’s house is on Linden directly across from the end of Anderson.
“I looked and there he was on the porch,” Eckman said, referring to the car and its driver. She called 911 at 8:28 a.m.
Eckman said she was talking with the driver while on the phone with 911 and told him he needed to stay. Instead, she said, he took off.
According to a criminal complaint against Bennett, he told Eckman he couldn’t stay because he needed to go to work.
Police said they found a credit card belonging to Bennett on the ground in the direction he had fled.
Police said Bennett is homeless.
Police said the car belonged to a man on Anderson Street. Police said that while an officer was there, a suspicious man matching the driver’s description approached the residence then started walking away after seeing a marked police vehicle.
An Arnold officer detained the man and brought him to New Kensington officers, the complaint states. Police said the man, identified as Bennett, admitted to driving the car that crashed into the house.
Police said Bennett was taken to Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison after complaining of pain in his hands and tingling in his feet.
Bennett was arraigned on Tuesday before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. and sent to the Westmoreland County jail after failing to post $5,000 bail. He did not have an attorney. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 4.
Diaz said she moved to the rental house in October from Tarentum. She has three girls — a newborn, 3, and 4 — and a 10-year-old son. They just started staying in the house.
The front wall of the house was cracked, and the front door isn’t safe to use, she said. Diaz said damage went all the way to the kitchen at the back of the house, where a wall also was cracked.
Diaz said she has rental insurance, and her landlord was waiting on his insurance.
When Eckman called her about the crash, Diaz thought about what could have happened had they been home.
“I just started crying,” she said.