Suspected DUI driver crashes into Madera business, police say

MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Dramatic surveillance video captured a truck crashing into a storefront in Madera on Tuesday morning.

Police say the driver is suspected to have been driving under the influence of alcohol.

Officers were called to the area of Howard Road and Williams Avenue at about 7 am.

Video from a business across the street shows a blue truck driving on three wheels.

The front right side dragged on the ground and straddled the sidewalk just before it crashed.

Moments later, Maria Angel arrived for work at labor contracting firm Di5mond Harvesters.

"I (saw) this vehicle inside our building and all these police cars and everything," Di5mond Harvesters CFO Maria Angel told Action News. "I said, ''What the heck? What happened to our office?'"

The wrecked storefront was not the blue truck's only collision Tuesday morning.

The driver also hit a parked car on West Yosemite Avenue.

"The first collision took off the right front tire, and the driver continued on after that collision," Madera Police Sergeant Felix Gonzalez said. "So, he was on three wheels the entire time after that first collision."

With just three wheels, the truck left gouges on the road.

The driver then hit another car near the intersection of West Yosemite Avenue and Pine Street before he crashed into Di5mond Harvesters.

"It is totally destroyed," Angel said of the inside. "The wall is pushed in the counter was shoved all the way up to the other wall. There's computers and printers, and everything (is) just in disarray. Chaos."

Police are not releasing the driver's name, but they say the 56-year-old was under the influence and had a previous DUI.

He suffered minor cuts to his face and finger and now faces 'multiple charges' for the three crashes.

Back at Di5mond Harvesters, Angel told Action News it was a miracle nobody was inside when the crash occurred.

She and her team are now urgently looking for another office space.

"We have to do payroll. We have to pay the farmworkers Thursday," Angel said. "We're scrambling to find where to go so we can continue our business."

While nobody was seriously hurt, police say the crashes serve as another reminder not to drink and drive.

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