Hercules Home Shows Speeding Car's Path Of Destruction

By looking at Don Do's front yard, you can easily see the path a speeding car took right before it crashed into his Hercules home on Thursday afternoon.

There is a narrow swatch of destruction that starts with the gaping hole in the hedge at the corner of Do's yard.

It travels over the red rocks, past several damaged bushes to the other edge of the hedge.

From there, you can see glass on the driveway where a silver Nissan hit two cars while it plowed into the corner of Do's garage and then landed upside down on the property line between Do's home and his neighbor's house.

Police say the car was driven by 18-year-old Alberto Morales of Pinole. They say the Nissan was traveling between 60 and 80 miles per hour when Morales sped up Lupine Road trying to evade a Hercules police officer who was pursuing him.

Do said when Morales tried to make a left turn at the top of Lupine Road, he apparently lost control of his vehicle and crashed through Do's front yard.

Nine people live in the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that Do's family has occupied since 1999.

On Thursday afternoon, Do's niece and mother-in-law were the only ones home. They both were in the garage. The niece was watching a movie on her laptop 
when she heard the real-life boom of the Nissan hitting the corner of the house.

Do was with his teenage son doing errands when he got a frantic call from his niece, telling him a car had just rammed into their house.

Less than an hour after the accident, a Hercules building inspector declared the dwelling's structural damage made it too dangerous to inhabit. A red "Unsafe" tag was on the house on Friday.

The family stayed at Do's brother's house a few blocks away on Thursday night. They are moving into a hotel Friday night until their house is repaired.

Both cars will need to be repaired, too.

Still, Do feels fortunate that nobody inside the house was hurt.

"We were lucky. All of this can be replaced," said Don while gesturing toward the hedge and the garage.

Do, who works in Richmond as a driver and customer service representative, jokingly said there may have been some divine intervention as he pointed to a statue of Buddha in his front yard that was untouched by the careening car.

Do added the Nissan driver put the lives of everybody on the street in danger by his reckless driving.

"If it wasn't my house, it could have been the next one," he said.