Ceres father, son injured as car slams through bedroom wall

For the second time in as many days, an early-morning hit-and-run crash resulted in a vehicle inside a residence. Thursday morning’s crash left an 8-year-old boy with a broken leg and his father in critical condition with two broken legs and other injuries.

The crash occurred about 2:15 a.m. Thursday on the 2400 block of Caswell Avenue in Ceres. A 2001 Mitsubishi Gallant traveling at high speed north on Sixth Street failed to stop at a sign and sped across Caswell into a bedroom where the boy and his father, 27, were sleeping.

The father was pinned beneath the car until being freed by Ceres firefighters and police officers, according to a news release from the Police Department. The child had been taken from the room by family members.

The boy suffered a broken femur. His father suffered two broken legs, burns from the heat of the car, cuts and internal injuries. Both were transported to a local hospital. Police said the father is in critical but stable condition.

At the home late Thursday morning, a man who asked be identified only as Chris and is the uncle of the boy and brother-in-law of the father said the child has been released from the hospital. He said the 27-year-old was conscious and alert and suffered no head trauma. Both should recover, Chris said.

He also said the Mitsubishi was stolen and two young Latino males were seen fleeing the scene. That information had not been confirmed early afternoon by Ceres police.

Officers followed a blood trail from the crash to the 2500 block of Caswell, Ceres Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jose Berber said in the news release, and they suspect that another vehicle picked up the occupant or occupants at that point.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call police Officer Keith Kitcher at 209-538-5620 or police dispatch at 209-538-5712.

Anonymous tips may be left by calling Crime Stoppers at 866-602-7463 or 209-521-4636.

A similar crash occurred Wednesday morning in Modesto. About 5:45 a.m., the driver of a black sports car veered off southbound College Avenue at Arc Way – just south of the Modesto Junior College East Campus – and through the living room and bedroom of a triplex unit there.

The vehicle went out the south wall and came to rest in a vacant lot adjacent to the triplex. A passerby saw the male driver run from the scene.

Fortunately for the resident, he is a light sleeper and had been up since about 1:30 a.m. He was in the kitchen at the time of the crash and was uninjured.

Because the car sped into and out of the triplex, many of the resident’s belongings were pushed or dragged into the vacant lot.

A few hours after the crash, an officer at the scene said the registered owner of the car had been identified and the vehicle had not been reported stolen. No further information was available from Modesto police Thursday on whether that registered owner had been located and was involved in the crash.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Ceres father, son injured as car slams through bedroom wall."