LEWISTON – A taxi driver and his two passengers escaped serious injury Wednesday afternoon when a cab slammed into a house on Oak Street.

Police said the driver, 29-year-old Jason Moore, may have hit the gas instead of the brake as he was turning from Prescott Street onto Oak at about 3:45 p.m.

They were also exploring the possibility that a mechanical defect may have led to the crash.

The front end of the City Cab-owned car struck the side of a three-story apartment house. The wreck drew people who heard the crash from a block away.

On Prescott Street, Josh Culeton and Josh Ray where walking down Oak Street as the cab driver was making his turn. Everything seemed normal.

“Then his car just speeded up and all of a sudden, whoosh,” Culeton said. “He went right into the house.”

A woman sitting in the passenger seat struck her head on the windshield but was not seriously hurt. A man in the back seat did not appear injured.

Culeton and Ray rushed to the cab to check on the driver.

“The air bag definitely got him in the face,” Culeton said.

“He looked stunned more than anything else,” Ray said.

Police Officer Jeremy Somma was investigating the cause of the crash. City Cab sent a second taxi over to pick up the pair stranded in the crash.