By Tom Peterson
At 4:14 p.m. on Tuesday, Carina Maria Chavez, 20, was driving her sister’s black Toyota RAV4 westbound on 7th Street in The Dalles.
Without permission.
Chavez said she had been drinking on Monday and on Tuesday morning started in with a Budweiser and hard alcohol. That afternoon she was driving home after an argument with an ex-boyfriend. Chavez said she was in a rage.
“I was in a rough patch. I went through a nasty break up,” she said. “I was not in control at all.”
Neighbors saw the 2015 Toyota moving at a fast clip.
Estimates range from 60 mph to 35 mph, depending on who you talk to. The street is posted 25 mph.
Chavez said 35 to 40 mph. “But I don’t know, I was not paying attention.”
She said she intended to turn left on Home Court. She missed it by some 20 feet and drove into a yard.
Chavez said she hit the accelerator instead of the brake.
Just feet away from the speeding 3,500-pound vehicle, Alicia Swift, partner Attila Boros and two-year-old son, Andor, were inside their home at 3120 W. 7th St.
The Toyota drove onto their lawn, clipping the front steps, crashing through the fence gate and two galvanized fence posts anchored with concrete. It smashed into the northwest corner of the house, busting the framework. Fence boards flew some 30 feet into the backyard past the child pool.
Chavez said the air bag did not deploy.
Inside the home, “It was like a bomb went off,” Swift said. “I ran to make sure the kiddo was alright.”
The two-year-old’s toy room was in the same corner of the house the vehicle hit. Andor’s blue toy car had shot across the room from the impact. Moldings popped off the window frame and floor. Daylight shone through the sheetrock.
Instinctively, Swift looked for her son.
She ran to the playroom. Not there.
She found him in the safety of the kitchen and called the police. “I went outside, and she (Chavez) was just backing out.”
“I yelled, ‘what are you doing,’ and she was trying to leave.”
Chavez, inside the Toyota, said she was trying to drive home, several houses south on Home Court.
At least two neighbors had witnessed the wreck, one with a birdseye view from a tree he was pruning, Swift said. Several neighbors came across the street to assist.
Chavez put the car in reverse and hit a third fence pole backing out. Swift said about six neighbors surrounded Chavez’ vehicle.
Chavez sat there in the RAV4.
Within minutes, police arrived.
Chavez was arrested and charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to perform the duties of a driver (hit and run) and reckless driving.
Swift said Chavez was also driving without a license and lacked insurance.
“Her mom and brother came running down the street as they were putting her in the police car,” Swift said.
Swift called her father, Ray Swift and Carolyn McClure.The couple immediately went to the home, which Ray is renting to Alicia.
“She kept breaking down into tears,” Ray said of his daughter. ”I was holding Andor. But he kept saying he wanted mommy. He never said that to me, ever. He could read Alicia. She was upset and really crying. It really got to him.”
A Youtube show helped settle things for the 2-year-old, Ray said. “All he needed was a popsicle, and he was good to go as long as mom was not crying.”
Swift said he spoke with Chavez’ mother, Catina Varela, and the sister who owned the car.
“They were visibly upset,” he said. “Mom came over too. She burned the Alfredo.”
“I was kind of numb feeling, wandering around there,” Ray added.
So while his daughter took stock of what happened, Ray said he went into dad mode.
He unpacked his tools and went about repairing the house, tacking exterior moldings together and patching the sheetrock hole where wind and insulation were coming in the house.
Dean Dollarhide of State Farm Insurance showed up and took photos in the aftermath.
“It’s like being in a bad movie,” Alicia Swift said. “It was so loud, and it shook our house.”
Alicia said she and her son were most often in the front yard and playroom where the car had done the most damage.
She keeps going over the “what ifs” in her head.
“That’s where we play all the time,” she said.
On Wednesday Morning, Adam’s Construction did an inspection on the damage to the house. Alicia is awaiting the estimate, but said it was in the tens of thousands of dollars. In addition, the damage to the front end of the RAV 4 is also in the thousands.
At 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Carina Chavez was released from Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facilities here in The Dalles.
“I was so terrified,” she said of the wreck. “I fucked up, and all I can do is apologize.”
“I have a problem with alcohol… I could have ended a child’s life. I have a lot of issues.”
Chavez said she intended to pay for the damages.
Her mother Catina Varela drove up. She got out of her vehicle and gave her daughter a warm coat. She hugged her.
“This is rock bottom,” Varela said, noting her daughter’s addiction to alcohol. “It’s hard to get mental health care.”
“I just want to see you get well,” she told her daughter.
Alicia and Ray Swift said the same, hoping the incident prompts Chavez to make constructive changes in her life.
“I am a firm believer that we all make mistakes,” said Alicia Swift. “I feel for her. I am just so grateful no one got hurt.”
“Beautiful thing,” Ray said of everyone walking away. “Good way to learn a lesson - hopefully.”
Chavez is scheduled to appear in Circuit Court on June 15, according to the Oregon Judicial Information Network.
DRUNK DRIVING PENALTIES IN OREGON
The penalties for a first-time DUI offender in Oregon are:
Two days to one year in jail or 80 hours of community service.
A minimum fine of $1,000. If blood alcohol content is .0.15 or greater, the fine minimum jumps to $2,000.
License suspension for one year.
Installation of an ignition interlock device - a breath test for alcohol linked to the ignition of the offenders vehicle - for one year after license suspension.
Drug and alcohol program
Participation in the Victim’s Impact Panel program.
Alicia Swift, partner Attila Boros, and son, Andor, seen here during a recent hike, had a close call on Tuesday when a vehicle driven by Carina Chavez hit their home on West Seventh Street in The Dalles.
This 2015 Toyota RAV4 sustained severe front end damage when it impacted the house behind. The driver, Carina Chavez, backed the vehicle out to this point before neighbors surrounded the vehicle.
The front fence at the home was destroyed.
Damage to the side of the northwest corner of the house.
Stuffed animals sit next to the wall in the playroom where the vehicle impacted the house.
