Ledger photo / TIM GULLA Gaffney firefighters and Cherokee County Chief Building Inspector Chuck Bobo take a look at the damage caused Monday afternoon when a car veered off Union Highway and struck a home. The driver of the car was taken to Upstate Carolina Medical Center for treatment. The third time was not a charm for Shawn and Wendy Rawleigh.

Two accidents had already found their front yard in the past decade, one damaging Shawn's truck and the other stopping just short of their home.

On Monday afternoon, however, a third accident didn't just happen near their doorstep, it nearly took it out.

A car driven by a Gaffney man suffering from a medical problem veered off Union Highway and plowed into the side of the Rawleighs' home, punching a gaping hole in the brick exterior and exposing their basement.

The Rawleighs were getting ready for work Monday when the accident rocked their home. Shawn said he and his wife ran outside to see what happened and then ran to the driver after seeing the wreck.

The accident was so loud that neighbors from hundreds of feet away ran to the scene, too.

The driver of the car, identified as James Burgess, 89, of Gowdeysville Road, was taken to Upstate Carolina Medical Center by ambulance. He was responsive at the scene before he was taken for treatment.

"I'm glad he's OK," Rawleigh said just after Burgess was transported. "I hope everything's all right with him."

Burgess was listed in stable condition at Upstate Carolina Medical Center on Tuesday.

In addition to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, Cherokee County Chief Building Official Chuck Bobo was called to the scene to investigate.

Bobo said he found some structural damage but nothing that required the Rawleighs to have to vacate, as the damage occurred under a non-loadbearing wall.

There's a low shoulder and an embankment off the west side of Union Highway north of the Rawleighs' home and a path created by Burgess' car as it ran through the vegetation showed he veered off the roadway about a hundred feet north of the crash site.

Shawn Rawleigh said he had been hoping for the installation of a guard rail along that stretch of highway to prevent another incident such as Monday's.

Lance Cpl. Jeff Gaskin of the South Carolina Highway Patrol said Burgess, who was driving south on the highway, left the roadway because of a medical condition. Burgess was wearing a seat belt, Gaskin said.