SAN ANTONIO – A West Side man is calling it “a miracle” that his mother escaped serious injury when a sport utility vehicle plowed into their home late Sunday night.
Daniel Garcia says his 77-year-old mother was asleep on a couch in their living room when the vehicle barreled into their home at the corner of San Joaquin and Monterey streets.
He said he woke up to what sounded like an explosion around 11:30 p.m., then made his way down a staircase which had shifted badly due to the crash.
Garcia said he found his mother screaming under a pile of debris with an overturned SUV just a few feet away from her in what had been their living room.
Neighbors had to help her out of the home through a window.
Miraculously, Garcia said, his mother suffered only minor injuries, a small cut on her face and a possible broken nose.
She was taken to a hospital for treatment, then released.
The driver of the SUV, a 38-year-old man, however, suffered critical injuries, according to San Antonio police.
Accident investigators were not able to say right away what may have caused him to lose control. They say the driver was heading north on South San Joaquin at a high rate of speed when he hit a bump, causing him to lose control and veer off the highway.
The SUV hit a trash bin and a utility pole, causing it to splinter, took out a neighbor’s fence and tore up their front yard.
CPS Energy crews worked most of the night to replace the pole and restore electricity.
Garcia said he believes a pet cat may have been killed when the SUV hit his home.
He also wasn’t sure whether the home, which has been in his family for generations, would be able to be repaired.