BILLINGS — A woman and her daughter escaped serious injury when a pick-up truck reversed directly into their hotel room in Billings.
They were staying at the Days Inn in Billings when the incident happened at around 1 a.m. on Monday, October 21, 2024.
Jasmine Hintz, the manager at the Days Inn and Super 8, said "There was a woman sleeping in the bed right next to the window... She said she got woken up to the bed moving and being covered in glass. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt at all. She wasn't cut at all. She didn't get hit by the truck."
Hintz wasn't at the hotel when it happened, but she arrived shortly after.
She says the crash happened after a group staying at the hotel had been causing problems.
The group was throwing a party, and when asked to move locations by hotel staff, one of the people reportedly accidentally reversed their pickup truck and crashed into the hotel room.
When the suspect tried to drive forward, they accidentally reversed again.
"(The truck) just destroyed everything in its path," said Hintz.
Jourdan Wright shared on Facebook:
As one of the women who was in the room when this happened, it was horrific. A sound I will never forget and a fear that will last for years to come. Seeing my mother illuminated by those taillights. Smelling the exhaust. The truck came in, paused, and then while I was able to get out of the bed and get closer to the bathroom, it reversed in again. At this point, my mother had only made it to the edge of my bed. I ran out of the room to go out to see what was happening, and that's when the driver started to try and floor it out of the room. No one stopped to think "sure hope there isn't a body under those tires". It was terrifying. We do have minor injuries to what seems to be our backs and neck from the jolts, but the pure emotional panic goes far deeper.
"It was a large group of them. (The) same night I found one of them sleeping in our fitness center. There was one sleeping in a cart room. We just had nothing but issues with this group the whole time they were here," Hintz said.
Billings police officers found the truck abandoned a short time later, but the driver has not been found.
Police are investigating, and they have not yet been able identify the driver or the group involved in the incident.
Days Inn is still working on figuring out the next steps.
"We have a company coming tomorrow that is going to put boards on the outside, so it's a little more secure, and maybe looks a little better than this," Hintz said.
