Street racers driving drunk crash into a Merced home, police say

MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- Two drivers are accused of street racing while drunk, and slamming into a house where several family members were sleeping. The damage to the home is shocking. Entire walls are missing, and the couch where Naiyana Xayavong usually sleeps is destroyed.

Xayavong said, "I'm scared. I got lucky. I was lucky wasn't here, I would have been dead."

The 31-year-old was at her boyfriend's house overnight, but she says six other family members were home around 3am when a white Volkswagen Jetta crashed into one wall -- plowed through the living room -- and knocked down another wall on the way out. It only stopped after ramming the family's BMW in the driveway. It also hit the couch where Xayavong's younger brother was sleeping.

Xayavong said, "My brother woke him up, and he didn't know nothing. But he was hurt on his leg."

Police say the Jetta and a green Honda Civic Del Sol were racing down R Street at more than 80 miles per hour when they ran through the stop sign at Childs Avenue and lost control. The Honda hit a concrete pole, went airborne, clipped the side of the house, and landed upside down.

Sgt. Jay Struble with the Merced Police Department said, "We've had several street racing accidents where fatalities have been involved. Nothing like this where they've gone through a house into a field, flipping cars."

Officers believe both 20-year-old drivers were drunk. The man in the green Honda, Jose Morales, was flown to a trauma center for surgery, and his pregnant passenger was also taken to the hospital as a precaution. The driver of the Jetta, Sergio Flores, was booked into jail on DUI charges. Authorities say the suspects are fortunate no one was killed.

Sgt. Jay Struble said, "They missed all major gas lines, the gas tank of the Honda was lying on the ground here behind me, and it was full of gas. Nothing ignited. Why it didn't ignite, I don't know. There was way too much gas and fuel for it not to, everyone involved in this is very lucky from the people in the cars to the residents who were in the house where it happened."

The 13-year-old daughter of the woman we interviewed also sleeps in the living room, but she happened to spend the night at a friend's house.

The Red Cross is now helping the family members find another place to stay, but they also lost a lot of belongings in the wreckage.