Pickup Hit Wilton Manors Home

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.- Early Tuesday a pickup rammed into an exterior wall of a home in Fort Lauderdale.

The hit caused a rain of bricks and ceiling debris that narrowly missed hitting a snow-white cockatoo named Bumbo.

The owner of the bird, Kemel Bandhu, said he ran into the room that was full of mist and grabbed the bird out.

The accident occurred before 7 a.m. when the driver of a landscaping truck pulling a small trailer lost control and ran right into the duplex on NW Ninth Ave. in Wilton Manors, said police.

Bandhu had just been in that room with his 12-year-old Umbrella Cockatoo. He said he heard the crash take place about two minutes after he left the room.

He told police he thought the ceiling was falling at first.

There were no reported injuries to Bandhu or Bumbo and the extent of the damage to the house is still being assessed at this time.

The landscape truck was traveling north on Powerline Road behind another vehicle when the driver said he had to quickly swerve because the vehicle in front suddenly stopped, said Wilton Manors Police Sgt. Biagio Balistreri.

Because of that maneuver the dark-colored truck was sent spiraling into the front of the house, said Balistreri.

The driver of the truck remained at the scene of the incident and did receive a citation for following too closely to the vehicle in front of him.

After the crash, the drive apologized to Bandhu and shook hands with Bumbo’s owber through the broken window of the bird’s room.

Bandhu said Bumbo was still upset from all of the commotion though so he loaded him up and took him to a friend’s house for the bird to fly around and calm down again.

Bandhu said the whole event was scary and that Bumbo was right in the way of it all.