18-year-old San Jose man charged with DUI; child injured, 9 displaced in hit-and run crash

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A child is recovering from minor injuries, and at least two families are displaced. This, following a hit-and-run crash into an apartment building in the Seven Trees neighborhood in San Jose.

The damage that could be seen from inside the impact area in one of the apartments was startling. Wooden beams were bowed and splintered inwards, and windows were broken. There was also damage to some household furnishings.

When KTVU asked displaced resident Jose Escobar where he would live, he said, "Me, I’ll stay with my daughter. She lives over there, so I’ll stay with her."

Escobar and at least eight other people are now without a place to live.

San Jose police detectives say they started receiving calls 911 around 1:45 a.m. Thursday.

"I was sleeping. And I awoke when I heard the noise," said hit-and-run victim Ran Meas.

When he looked outside his neighboring unit, he saw a four-door sedan wedged into the exterior of an apartment in the 500 block of Crabapple Way, near the intersection of Senter Road and Sylvandale Avenue.

"The driver had fled. And after locating the suspect, it was one driver who was arrested for DUI," said Stacie Shih, senior public relations officer for the San Jose Police Department. 

Investigators say two children were also in the car. One suffered minor injuries, and was treated at the scene. Both kids are back with their parents.

San Jose police identify the driver as 18-year-old Daniel Perez, a resident of San Jose. Perez managed to avoid a traffic pole, but clipped a parked car in route to crashing into the unit.

"I thought the car hit my house. But then when I came out, and I saw the cabinets in my kitchen have been broken," said Meas.

The Red Cross is assisting affected families with temporary housing and supplies.

Police officials said considering everyone was home sleeping at the time of the crash, and that children were in the car, this outcome could have been much worse.

"It is serious that we had minors in the car, let alone a driver that was intoxicated. I think what was good is that none of the residents were injured," said Shih.

There is structural damage to the exterior wall of one unit. And water and gas service was severed by the crash.

It’s unknown how long the affected families will be out of their homes.

Perez was last reported in the main Santa Clara County Jail, charged with DUI, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Jesse Gary is a reporter based in the station's South Bay bureau. Follow him on Twitter @JesseKTVU and Instagram @jessegontv