MESQUITE, Texas — On Thursday afternoon, Mary Mitchell was in her home praying when she heard a loud bang.
"I turned around and I saw the truck... inside my daughter’s room," she cried.
A neighbors' surveillance camera captured the accident: Two vehicles crash, then one of the two then crashes into the side of Mitchell's home. Mitchell lives with her two adult daughters, she explained, and her two young great-grandchildren.
"We’re going through very hard times," she said. "Very hard times."
The car, Mitchell said, narrowly missed her daughters, but for three days they’ve all been unable to eat or sleep.
"We’re petrified," she said. "We’re literally petrified that it’s going to happen again."
The intersection she lives on, Mary believes is just too dangerous. She said she’s lost count of the number of accidents here. She and her girls are traumatized but have nowhere else to go.
"That’s out of the question" she said about moving. "I couldn’t afford to get insurance on my home. How could I pick up and leave?"
Mary told WFAA she also just lost her Medicaid coverage, and her husband of 53 years recently died.
"It took us 22 years to pay for this house," she said. "There is no way, no hope. I have no one."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the city of Mesquite said the ultimate cause of the accident was "speed and driver inattention."
The spokesperson went on to say, "we are studying this accident to determine if any safety improvements can be made to make the intersection safer. We need to see what caused this to happen and how the vehicle ended up hitting the house. We will consider all options to prevent cars from hitting the house in the future."
Mitchell hopes that might mean the city will eventually install a barricade in front of her home. As far as finances are concerned, she said she's not yet sure if the driver involved had car insurance. Meanwhile, her 13-year-old great-granddaughter has been drawing and is trying to sell her artwork for money.
She also started this GoFundMe, hoping people may donate to help.