UPDATE: Local woman, 44, identified as driver in Monday's accident

Police have identified the woman responsible for crashing her car into an apartment near the First United Methodist Church Monday afternoon.

Just after 4 p.m. Porterville resident Tracy Richardson, 44, drove a Ford Taurus into the apartment’s bedroom — located at 475 N. Murry St. The accident also sliced open a gas line at the driveway that spurred the evacuation of eight nearby residences.

The damage “was much worse than I thought,” apartment owner Pauline Pearson said. “The people won’t be able to live there.”

The family living in the apartment escaped injury, as the mother and her children had just arrived home when the accident occurred, according to Pearson.

“The cause of the collision is under investigation at this time,” a Porterville Police Department press release states.

According to Pearson, the impact tore down a wall separating a bedroom and the master bedroom, in addition to a linen closet. Only one person was inside the residence at the time.

Officers responding to the scene found Richardson inside the vehicle, where she was uninjured but taken to Sierra View District Hospital by ambulance.

The initial sound of the crash alarmed neighbors Ella and Joe Adams, who described the noise as a powerful boom.

“Like an explosion, like a bomb,” Ella Adams said. And then there were the “sounds of gas meters hissing.”

After ventilating the apartments and plugging the gas line on Monday evening, firefighters ushered neighbors back into their homes.

Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.