Close call in Santa Rosa as car crashes through home’s front door, narrowly missing occupants

A car that crashed through a south Santa Rosa home Wednesday evening stopped just inches short of a person who was seated inside on a living room couch.

No injuries were reported, despite extensive damage to the home, but the crash gave Denisse Gonzalez, her sister and a friend quite a scare and left the sisters temporarily displaced.

The three were seated on the couch of their Moorland Avenue rental home when they heard a loud bang. The noise drew Gonzalez, 20, to a window, where she found a blue Nissan Altima in her yard. It had just driven off Scenic Avenue and through the property’s fence in reverse. Her sister Marlene, 22, had moved to another window while the friend stayed on the couch.

Inexplicably, the car, having stopped momentarily, started again in reverse, Gonzalez said, and crashed through the home’s front door and entryway. It stopped just inches from her seated friend’s knees.

“My sister pulled her away” from the car, Gonzalez said.

Neither of the three women, or the driver of the vehicle, was harmed. But Gonzalez remained shaken the next morning.

“I’m still kind of scared though much better than yesterday,” she said.

The driver of the Nissan was sober at the time of the crash and did not face charges beyond moving violations, said California Highway Patrol spokesperson Officer David deRutte. He had been executing a three-point turn and accelerated in reverse, potentially thinking the car was in drive, deRutte said.

The home did not escaped unscathed. A county building inspector had tagged it as unsafe for entry for the time being, though the residents believed they would soon be able to return but not stay overnight.

Gonzalez and her sister spent the night with an aunt, she said.

The car pushed in the home’s entry wall and separated it from the foundation, according to the note from the Sonoma County building inspector posted to the home at 6:10 p.m. Wednesday. The crash had left the roof above the doorway unsupported.

Damage to the house was initially estimated at about $20,000, said Karen Hancock, a spokesperson for the Sonoma County Fire District. Firefighters responded to the call just after 5 p.m., she said, when they shut off gas and electricity to the home as a precaution.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88