Woman sues driver for hitting her home

AUGUSTA – Who says sitting on the couch can’t be dangerous?

A woman is seeking more than $7,500 in damages for injuries she allegedly suffered when a car hit her apartment building, knocking her off the sofa and onto the floor.

Marian McElmurry of Augusta says in a lawsuit filed in Kennebec County Superior Court that she suffered neck and back pain and was taken to the emergency room after the November 1999 accident.

The driver, Darci Babin of Bangor, did not know how to operate the standard transmission on the Ford pickup truck she was driving, according to a police report.

Babin turned right onto Swan Street and never straightened the truck’s steering wheel, plowing into the side of McElmurry’s apartment building, the report said. Babin and a passenger in the truck were both uninjured.

McElmurry was sitting on the arm of a sofa resting against the ground-floor wall that was hit, said Tracie Adamson, her lawyer.

The lawsuit alleges that Babin was negligent and careless, and seeks compensation for medical bills in excess of $7,500, in addition to disability, pain, suffering and loss of income.

Attempts to settle the matter with Babin’s insurance company were unsuccessful, Adamson said.

Babin’s lawyer, James Hunt, could not be reached for comment.