The normally placid neighborhood surrounding a Downey elementary school erupted into chaos on Thursday when a suspected DUI driver crashed his vehicle onto school grounds. The crash occurred near Gallatin Elementary School on Brookshire Ave. around 4:45 p.m., with no children involved in the frightening incident, FOX 11 reported.
Surveillance video captured the harrowing moments as an SUV, driven by a 33-year-old male from the Commerce area, careened out of control outside the school. The footage, shared with both FOX 11 and ABC7, shows the vehicle furiously approaching before slamming into a sedan. A woman close by had just retrieved something from her car and was seen narrowly dodging out of the way alongside a male bystander.
The SUV's unyielding momentum brought it crashing through a fence before it came to an abrupt stop on the kindergarten playground. According to Downey police, the driver was transported to a hospital with moderate injuries and later arrested on suspicion of DUI, as per FOX 11. Echoing the relief felt by many, Gaby Eciso, whose camera recorded the ordeal, told ABC7, "it's a pure miracle" that the SUV "just passed right in front of her".
The response to the incident was swift, with the Downey Unified School District stating that they were quickly working "to repair the playground with a permanent fencing solution that will increase safety for all of our students and staff," ensuring no further risk to the community. However, locals like Carlos Acevedo recognize a troubling trend in the area. "It's pretty quiet, but every now and then there's cars that travel pretty fast -- which they shouldn't, around the school area, especially at that time," he expressed to ABC7. The shock of the accident was palpable amongst residents, yet some, like Eciso, are sadly not surprised, noting that "people just use this as like a racetrack or something," in her interview with ABC7.
