A South Bay family had a close call Thursday night.
A driver crashed an SUV into a traffic signal pole and then into a Santa Clara home, narrowly missing a 5-year-old boy and his family around 11 p.m. at the intersection of Lafayette and Lewis streets.
Francisco Cortezcruz was arrested and booked on felony DUI and felony hit and run charges. A passenger in the SUV was also arrested for being drunk in public, a misdemeanor.
“It happened really quickly, it was like a bomb went off,” Patrick Paul, who was inside the house with his wife and son, said.
Five-year-old Max was sitting on a couch near a window with a family friend, looking at pictures of his parents’ wedding three weeks ago when his parents saw headlights behind the boy and their best man, then glass flying everywhere. The couch was shoved toward the center of the room.
The Pauls and their friend, Matt Laplaca, moved away, and moments later, a traffic signal pole came crashing into the home as well right in the spot where Max and Laplaca were sitting. “They watched it happen, it was probably more terrifying for them,” Paul said.
The Pauls and Laplaca went to the hospital, where doctors removed small pieces of glass, but they are otherwise OK. Paul told NBC Bay Area that the two people in the SUV were slurring and stumbling around after getting out of the vehicle.
According to Paul, Santa Clara Police arrested at least one person.
The Pauls will return to the home after their landlord makes repairs, but they said Max will never be allowed to play in the front yard.
