Speeding driver trashes parked car, truck, trailer
DJ Becker/The Madera Tribune Vehicles that had been parked sit demolished in the front yard of a home in the 2300 block of Sunset Avenue Sunday morning after a 24- year-old driver, alleged to be DUI, lost control and crashed into the parked SUV, a pickup truck and a landscaping trailer before overturning.
A 24-year-old Madera man, alleged to have been almost three times over the limit for alcohol, lost control of his 2002 Mustang at high speed and crashed while driving westbound on Sunset Avenue about 2 a.m. Saturday morning, according to Madera Police public information officer, Sgt. Mark Trukki.
Guillermo Becerra is now facing charges of DUI after he took out a brick mailbox, struck a parked late model SUV and a pickup truck with a landscaping trailer attached, before going airborne, rolling over and coming to a stop upside down in the traffic lanes near the 2300 block of Sunset Avenue. Becerra sustained minor head injuries and a broken forearm in the crash, and was taken to Madera Community Hospital before being released, according to police.
Area residents said they heard something like a bomb going off and then couldn’t believe all the damage when they went out to see what had happened. One man described it as looking like a disaster movie scene with all the wreckage, and the many police and emergency response vehicles.
“The silver Mustang was flattened and on its roof,” said a neighbor who saw the aftermath. “Glass, and other parts of the car were scattered for half a block. The young man was inside, upside down and had a large cut on his head. Empty beer cans were thrown from the car. These ... kids have a club and race around these long, straight streets, and fly through here all the time.” he said.
Residents have long complained that a racing group of Mustangs, Chargers and Camaros with loud, modified exhausts exists, and the group speeds, drives recklessly, and regularly burns heavy black circles with their tires in intersections throughout Madera, for entertainment and bragging rights.
The loud, high-speed racing is often heard about dusk and late into the night, in the areas of Industrial Avenue, Sunset Avenue and Howard Road.
The family whose vehicles were destroyed said they were still in shock, and had just purchased the house six months ago and were in the process of fixing the house up. They were now without both vehicles and their landscaping trailer, and business equipment, and said they weren’t exactly sure what was going to happen next.
Many drivers on Sunset Avenue Sunday morning paused, looked and shook their heads at the unusual sight of the pile of wreckage.
Tire marks show the Mustang’s trajectory though the front yard, throwing dirt and debris up on to the roof of the house and crushing the parked cars into a large pine tree. Emergency personnel said that had the Mustang hit the tree instead of the vehicles, the driver would have likely been killed by the impact.
