Semi Truck Hits Building In Lansing

CHICAGO (CBS)--A semi-truck carrying 38,000 pounds of meat slammed into an apartment building in south suburban Lansing Monday around 5 a.m.

Using a chainsaw, rescuers spent two hours removing the driver from the truck and cleaning up the wreckage.

Witnesses said the crash sounded like an earthquake. One witness told CBS 2 the driver fell asleep behind the wheel near Torrence Avenue and 184^th Street before the truck slammed into a four-unit apartment building.

First responders rushed one person who was in one of the apartments to the hospital. Village officials said he was being treated for a broken leg and was expected to be ok.

A woman and her kids, who were in a different apartment, weren't injured, authorities said.

The front end of the building was heavily damaged in the accident, and the ground was littered with debris after the truck was removed.

Lansing's Communications Director Ken Reynolds said the village had never seen anything like Monday's crash.

"Now it's a matter of shoring up the building so that when the vehicle is removed there's hopefully as little fall away of the structure of the building," Reynolds said.

The front of the truck was also destroyed. The driver of the truck was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, officials said.

Police said they will interview the driver after he recovers.

The truck, operated by Vanek Brothers Trucking, Inc., was traveling from South Holland to Munster.