BLOOMINGTON - Tina Fineley had just left home 10 minutes before: her three children, ages 14, 13 and 9 years old, were playing outside behind their home in the 1700 block of West Olive Street. | Photo Gallery

Fineley, who had just returned to work after a supper break, got a phone call from home early Monday evening from her children.

"They called me and said there was a van in the living room," said Fineley, who found the entire front wall, window and door of the first story of her two-story apartment completely crashed in after the van went off Olive Street through the front yard through the front of their apartment. The driver asked if everyone was OK. "He pulled out the van and parked it," she said.

Police said the driver told them his steering column locked up and he backed through the apartment shortly before 6 p.m. Monday. Mario Crowder, 20, of the 1600 block of West Indiana Ave., was charged with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, improper backing and having no insurance, police said.

Kim Holman-Short, executive director of the Bloomington Housing Authority, said the family would be relocated to another apartment but there were no vacancies in the complex where they lived. She said a housing authority maintenance man cut his hand on something sharp and was treated at a hospital.

The American Red Cross of the Heartland was at the scene to give emergency help. A construction crew stabilized and secured the wrecked apartment Monday night.

"I just got home,"

said Chasmine Thornton, whose apartment just a few feet to the left of the wrecker. "You see your next-door neighbor's apartment in shambles-you panic."

Fineley said children ordinarily would have been inside at that time of the day in the living room. "It's a blessing," she said.