Dallas

Dallas Family Demands Action After Third Car Crashes Into Their Home

A suspected drunk driver plowed into an Oak Cliff home with a family inside, taking out two cars and a tree along the way.

The home's surveillance system captured the devastating crash along the 3500 block of West Clarendon Drive in Dallas.

The Hernandez family said they have sounded the alarm after not one, not two, but now three cars have crashed into their home and the city of Dallas has yet to address the dangerous stretch of road in front of their home.

“It’s pretty devastating,” said Mary Ann Hernandez surveying the damage.

Her front yard looks like a tornado tore through it.

“Thousands of dollars worth of damage,” she said. “Basically it’s starting over again.”

This has been the Hernandez’ home for 33 years.

They picked the modest brick house to raise their five children and for its proximity to Weiss Park.

The family’s laundry room was destroyed, so was the car they were going to give their teenager and Juan Hernandez’ work truck.

Piles of brick, rubble and crumpled up remains are piled up waiting to be picked up.

Dallas police say Jiret Tovar Alonso, 25, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after crashing into the house at about 2 a.m. on Sunday.

The surveillance camera captured a car driving down Combs Creek Drive before ending up inside the house.

The sound was a familiar one.

“Like a bomb,” said Hernandez. “We kind of knew what it was because it’s happened before.”

It has happened not once, not twice, but three times.

“Three times too many,” she said. “Three times too many.”

According to police crash reports there were two separate crashes in 2010.

The family took pictures of one crash where a pickup ended up far inside the building, in a similar manner as Sunday’s crash.

Hernandez said drivers often ignore the 25-mile-an-hour speed limit posted around Weiss Park.

The speed limit increases to 30 mph farther down West Clarendon Drive.

Hernandez said she has petitioned for speed bumps along Combs Creek Drive as well in an effort to slow drivers down.

“Our council member, I’ve called and left a message with him,” she said. “We’ve done the paperwork, we’ve gotten signatures, we’ve done everything we can to get speed bumps and we always get declined.”

Action, she says, is needed now before something other than belongings is destroyed.

“I think if we had a dead body laying out here somebody would be out here a lot quicker to do something about it,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez told NBC 5 Sunday that a Dallas city worker visited the home following the most recent crash and said the city would add a guard rail as soon as possible.

The family has contacted their insurance company to report the damages, and has a GoFundMe page to them cover additional costs.

According to an NBC 5 search of car crashes in the immediate area, there have been seven crashes since 2010, including the two previous crashes into the Hernandez home.

Dallas city councilman Scott Griggs represents this area.

Representatives from his office told NBC 5 that Griggs is out of town and has limited communication.

His office said they have contacted the assistant city manager’s office to look into the latest incident.

This article was updated on July 8.

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