A teenage driver somehow lost control of his late-model Honda Civic and plowed into a Miramar home early Tuesday morning, killing himself and his teen passenger.
The crash happened at the intersection of 172nd Street and Miramar Parkway around 2 a.m. Police say the driver, identified as 18-year-old Ian Michael Guckian, was headed south on 172nd when he ended up in the northbound lane, hit a tree, and crashed into a home belonging to James Martinez.
The passenger, 18-year-old Kevin O'Connell, was also killed. Relatives said the two teens were best friends.
Broken glass covered Martinez’s dining room Tuesday. His family, including three children, was asleep when the car crashed into the back of the house. It startled his family and residents in the wee hours of the morning, and Martinez called 911.
He later described the moment of impact.
“I heard a big bang while I was sleeping upstairs about 2 o’clock in the morning. I ran down and I just saw a broken window and I looked past the window and saw it was a car," he said. "The car goes through the wall that my daughter sits right next to when we sit down and do her homework together."
No one in the home was injured. Guckian died at Memorial Hospital. Passenger O'Connell was pronounced dead on the scene.
Residents say these types of crashes have happened before in the neighborhood. Investigators say they are working to determine if speed was a factor.
"This is not the first time it has happened here. It happened in my backyard," homeowner Margie Pirra.
Martinez agreed and said cars race up and down 172nd Street all the time and residents have reported it to police and the homeowners association, but nothing has been done about it.
