FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — A Fayetteville family was shocked to find a car crashed on top of their backyard gazebo around 1:30 a.m. on Monday.

North Carolina State Highway Patrol said three people inside the car were hurt and taken to the hospital, including a 12-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy. The driver had to be rescued after getting trapped inside with life-threatening injuries. State troopers haven’t released the age or identity of the driver.

Three people, including juveniles, injured in Fayetteville crash into gazebo, NCSHP says

State troopers said the black sedan was speeding eastbound on Black and Decker Road. According to NCSHP, the car hydroplaned at the Legion Road intersection. It then traveled down an embankment near Hennardland Place, narrowly missing a house, hitting a metal fence, before coming to a stop after hitting Sherrby Salazar’s backyard gazebo on Vardaman Avenue.

“I was just praying that they were okay,” Salazar said, adding that the car was “sitting literally on top of the gazebo that my mother always wanted.” 

The car crushed Salazar’s wooden and metal gazebo into pieces. The disabled Army veteran said the home is her mother’s estate, and it was something her mother purchased before passing away in October of 2021. 

“We kept the Christmas lights on the gazebo. Just like she wanted,” Salazar said. 

She believes the gazebo saved the lives of her brother and nephew who were asleep inside the home at the time of the crash. While she said she’s grateful for that, she is also hurt to know a place her late mother worked so hard for and enjoyed so much is now gone. 

“Going to miss the gazebo our mother dreamed about and finally got it,” Salazar said. “Now the only thing we can do is look at it in pieces.”

The investigation into what happened is ongoing.