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He ran upstairs and out the back door.
A van had crashed into the corner of the house where he lives, at 38 E. Main St. Gasoline was puddling under it, and above, a sheared-off utility pole hung by its wires, swaying.
Rudolph, who rents the property with his fiancée and their 6-year-old daughter, was the only one home at the time. He was not injured.
The vehicle's sole occupant was the driver, whom Manor Township police identified as Leslie Dancosse, 47, of Columbia. She was conscious but appeared badly disoriented by the crash, Rudolph said. Some members of VFW Post 8757 next door at 48 E. Main St. came out to assist her.
According to a news release, Dancosse told police she was trying to retrieve a soda that fell off the passenger seat when she drove off the road.
She was taken to Lancaster General Hospital, where she was undergoing an evaluation at press time, a nursing supervisor said.
Emergency responders cordoned off most of the block where the van sat wedged against the porch of the two-story duplex. The bottom half of the snapped-off utility pole lay against the vehicle's windshield.
A PPL crew began replacing the pole, which bore a transformer, after the van was removed by Patriot Towing about 7:15 p.m.
Rudolph, 24, a customer service representative for Atomic Bearing Co., a division of Brown Transmission, said he was thankful his fiancée and daughter took a late-afternoon walk in the park nearby. Otherwise, the whole family would have been on the first floor preparing dinner and might have been in the corner dining room, where the van struck.
The family moved into the house in January, and landlord Greg Kyle had just finished remodeling it, Rudolph said.
"This was always my concern," the tenant said. Main Street is part of Route 462, a busy through street, and the porch of 38 Main St. abuts the sidewalk, just a few feet from traffic.
Rudolph went back inside briefly after the impact before realizing it was probably unsafe. He said there didn't seem to be much interior damage.
Officials determined the building was structurally sound, and occupants were allowed to return about 7:20 p.m., although they could use only the back door.
Traffic was detoured around the block on Manor, Hoover and Lemon streets, Mountville Fire Company Deputy Fire Chief Robert Evans said.
Rudolph, a rap musician and author, figured he caught the crash on tape in his studio. "I'm going to play it" and see once the commotion dies down, he said.
E-mail: tstuhldreher@lnpnews.com
