A pickup truck smashed through a fence and then into the front porch of a home in the 400 block of West Sixth Street Thursday evening. According to witnesses, the eastbound truck crossed lanes, clipped a tree and then went airborne before crashing through the fence and into the porch. A truck tire was found in the front yard near the street. The homeowner was inside the front room reading to her child when the accident happened.

Lawrence police Friday were investigating whether alcohol played a factor in the Thursday evening crash in which a man drove his truck into a porch on Sixth Street.

Police identified the man as 51-year-old Charles Sowell, of Lawrence.

Sowell was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, said Capt. Paul Fellers, a police spokesman. No other injuries were reported, although the man’s black pickup truck and the porch in the 400 block of West Sixth Street sustained significant damage.

“It’s being investigated in terms of whether or not (alcohol) was a factor,” Fellers said.

Police said the man was driving the truck east on Sixth Street when he crossed the center line, traveled across both westbound lanes and eventually struck the porch.

“It crashed into the gate and just destroyed the porch,” said Zakada Fitzgerald, who witnessed the crash from across the street.