Two cars slam into buildings in separate incidents
Two shocking car crashes that happened within 24-hours of each other in Austin are being investigated as DWI cases. One car barreled into a home, the other slammed into a health center.
Surveillance video shows a car speed by and within seconds, slams into Central Health Southeast Health and Wellness Center.
"It's never happened before and chances are, it will never happen again at this location. It's one of those really freak accidents. We're really glad nobody was hurt," says Ted Burton, vice president of communications, Central Health.
The center was closed at the time of the crash, around 1:30 a.m. Monday. The car ended up in their multi-purpose room
"Well it took down this part of the fencing, knocked out a door," says Burton.
The cost of the damage is still unknown but Central Health officials are thankful the car didn't destroy a more expensive part of the building, like a clinical room. Austin Police responded within about four minutes. They say the driver was arrested on a felony DWI charge, his passenger was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Just about 12 hours before, there was another DWI arrest in a similar incident in a North Austin neighborhood. In that case, a car slams into the front of a home off Glenn Lane. As we slow the video down, you can see the car take down a tree before impact. FOX 7 Austin knocked on several doors - where we met Maria Herrera who is good friends and neighbors with the homeowners. The crash was captured on her home's surveillance camera. Herrera says she heard a loud bang and ran outside. In a panic, she went to check on her neighbors and says luckily, neither of them were hurt. We're told the husband was in the backyard and the wife was at church that afternoon. The latest statistics by TxDOT show that in 2016 there were more than 1,400 DUI crashes in Austin. That number is up slightly from the year before which was a little more than 1,300 DUI crashes. The Austin Police Department has been pushing their Arrive Alive campaign heavily on social media to help bring those numbers down.
"Public transportation is really big here in the City of Austin. We have several ways that people can get to-and-from home. First off, we have the buses, the night owl. Victims of DWI don't necessarily have to be another driver or a pedestrian on the roadway, it could be people living right in their residence," says Officer Raul Dominguez.
Although you can still see damage in the front of Southeast Health Wellness Center, Central Health officials say it is open.