12 Injured After Truck Plows Into Minneapolis Apartment

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A man is lucky to be alive after a truck plowed right through his apartment around 9:30 p.m. Friday on the corner of Lowry Avenue North and Colfax Avenue North in north Minneapolis. Twelve people were hurt in the crash and the apartment has been evacuated indefinitely.

"Six inches more and I probably wouldn't be here," apartment occupant Russ McLaughlin said.

What started as a Friday night relaxing on the couch ended as a near-death experience for McLaughlin.

"Didn't hear a thing other than the program I was watching, and the next thing I know I had a truck on top of me," he said.

A truck barreled straight through the Ideal Apartments at 1001 Lowry in the Hawthorne Neighborhood-- and landed right on him.

"I saw a front tire sitting on my chest and part of the frame on the side of my body," McLaughlin said.

Police believe the driver of the truck was suffering from a medical emergency. Twelve people, including McLaughlin, were injured in the crash.

"I mean, it's not every day you get that run-down feeling that you felt you've been hit by a truck," he said with a laugh.

He was lucky to escape with scrapes, cuts, and bruises.

"All I can do is thank God that I'm still alive," McLaughlin said.

The Red Cross helped out McLaughlin and his wife Donna with a hotel night stay on Friday night.

For now, the apartment building has been evacuated and shut down until structural engineers conform it's safe for people to live there again.

Though there is a security camera on the side of this apartment building, it is reportedly not operated by the city of Minneapolis. Officials are still working to figure out whether or not it captured the moment that the truck went through the building.

A GoFundMe page has been established to help McLaughlin and his wife with moving costs and to replace all of their belongings that were destroyed.