TARPON SPRINGS – At least three people were seriously injured in a late-night crash on a quiet residential road Tuesday.


A red car careened down Pasaje Avenue shortly before 11 p.m., ejecting passengers as it demolished mailboxes and fences, flinging parts across front lawns and splitting a pair of telephone poles.


Katrina Miller and Price Pelt were in bed watching television when they heard the crash unfold outside their house. When they opened their front door, they emerged into a dust cloud, downed power lines, and a woman laying on the side of the road, bleeding extensively from her head, Pelt said.


“It was total chaos when we walked out the door,” Pelt said.


The call was initially dispatched as four pedestrians struck, but Pelt said the people hit were all in the car at the time of the accident. He thought most of them were probably in their late teens or early 20s.


Pelt, a carpenter, tried to help and eventually grabbed some halogen lights to illuminate the darkened road and used some wood to prop up downed power lines so fire engines could get to the extensive crash scene.


The crash ended on the 500 block of Pasaje Avenue, near where it dead ends.


Pelt, who said he has lived on the street for 35 years, said the car appeared to speed over a hill just west of Dixie Highway, going airborne before crashing to the ground and losing control.


The Florida Highway Patrol continued to investigate the crash early Wednesday – surveying the nearly two blocks of debris and destruction caused by the wreck.


Medical helicopters flew at least three of the people to area hospitals; their conditions were unknown early Wednesday.


Pelt, 35, said the driver of the car emerged dazed, but seemed mostly unhurt. By the time the car had stopped after hitting the second telephone pole, residents were pouring out of their houses amid screams of the injured passengers.


A rear view light, parts of a neighbor’s mailbox and other indistinguishable car parts were strewn on Pelt’s front lawn. The impact tore down part of his chain-link fence, and the red car badly damaged a friend’s car that was parked in front of the house.


More details about the accident likely will not be available until later this morning.