Driver who crashed into Eastside home indicted

A police photo taken moments after the crash shows the utter destruction to the room where Ronald Rouleau was sitting when the crash occurred.

DOVER, N.H. - The driver of a car that crashed into an Eastside house injuring a man sitting at his desk and drinking his morning coffee has been indicted in the incident.

James Curit, 30, of 11 Cold Spring Manor, Rochester, could face up to 14 years in jail if convicted of both DWI and reckless conduct charges.

In a story first brought to you by The Lebanon Voice, Ronald Rouleau, of 65 Highland Street, was enjoying his Saturday morning coffee and crossword in the front room of his house around 10 a.m. on May 9 when Curit piled into the corner where Rouleau was sitting.

"I was sitting there doing my crossword with my coffee," he told The Lebanon Voice that Saturday afternoon. "I didn't see it coming. All I heard was a bang."

Ronald Rouleau poses in front of the boarded up wreckage of his Highland Avenue home just hours after he was knocked unconscious by the impact of a car into his front room. (Lebanon Voice file photo)

The bang was a 1996 Saturn SL sedan crashing into his front room, and him. Rouleau was knocked some 15 feet to the other side of the room. He didn't remember anything until two men pulled him from the rubble and got him outside.

"I wound up on the other side of the room. They thought I was a goner," he said. "They thought I was dead."

The most miraculous thing was that Rouleau was sitting no more than two feet from the initial point of impact, sitting at his desk like he does every morning.

Police say Curit was traveling eastbound on Highland Street when the Saturn crossed into the westbound lane before crashing into Rouleau's 65 Highland St. home where he's lived since 1962.

Curit and a passenger, Ashley Maclean of Sanford, Maine, along with Rouleau, were all transported to Frisbie Memorial Hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.

Miraculously, Rouleau suffered only a cut on his chin and some bruises on his legs.

He remembers nothing about the crash, itself. "I guess I blacked out," he said. "I was very, very lucky."

The October Strafford County grand jury indictments were released last week.

An indictment is not an indication of guilt, only that enough evidence has been presented to warrant a trial.