DIXFIELD – A 5-year-old boy was injured on Thursday after he accidentally shifted his dad’s car into gear and it rolled backward down an embankment and into a neighbor’s house, police said.

Following the noontime accident, the child, Matthew Gagnon, who has the same name as his father, was taken to Rumford Hospital. He was treated for injuries and released.

Neighbor Jason Densmore, 31, said he wasn’t home when the boy backed a 1994 Plymouth several feet downhill into his house at 43 Hall Hill Road.

The impact punched a sizable hole into the wall, buckled the wall from ground to eaves, and broke heating system pipes, flooding a spare bedroom, computer system and the basement with water.

The car was slightly damaged when it rolled over a small pile of rocks and bottomed out in Densmore’s paved driveway. Patrolman Eric Bernier estimated damage to the house at $5,000 or more.