A car slammed into the side of a garage at a home on White Oak Garden Way in Garner Friday morning, tearing a large hole in the structure and sending the driver to the hospital with minor injuries. Garner police say the driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash and has been charged with driving while impaired.
According to WRAL, the car ran into the side of the garage, leaving the large hole behind. Garner police say the driver was taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries before being charged with DWI. The outlet did not report the driver's blood alcohol concentration, and it remains unclear whether structural engineers were called out to evaluate the home's safety or what the driver's next court date will be.
What a DWI Charge Means Next
Under North Carolina law, an arrest for driving while impaired triggers immediate consequences even before any criminal case is resolved. Per North Carolina General Statute § 20-16.5, a driver who registers a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher, or who refuses chemical testing, faces an automatic 30-day civil license revocation issued by a magistrate right at the initial arrest processing, according to the UNC School of Government.
The criminal case itself will move through Prosecutorial District 10 at the Wake County Courthouse in Raleigh, which handles all Wake County municipal DWI cases under District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, per the NC Conference of District Attorneys. Misdemeanor impaired driving in North Carolina is governed by a structured, six-tier punishment framework under General Statutes § 20-138.1 and § 20-179, ranging from Level 5 up to Aggravated Level 1, with penalties spanning community service up to 36 months in prison, according to the Manning Law Firm.
Property Damage as an Aggravating Factor
Notably, crashing into property like a home's garage isn't just physical damage the driver will have to account for civilly. Under General Statute § 20-179(d)(3), negligent driving that leads to a reportable accident is codified as a statutory aggravating factor that a judge or jury must weigh at sentencing, meaning the garage crash itself could push any eventual punishment toward a harsher level.
The financial fallout tends to follow drivers for years after a DWI conviction. Under the North Carolina Safe Driver Incentive Plan, a DWI conviction assesses 12 insurance points against a driver's record, authorizing a mandatory 340% increase in auto insurance premiums, according to the NC Department of Insurance.
Garner's Broader Traffic Safety Picture
Garner sits in Wake County roughly six miles south of downtown Raleigh, covering about 17 square miles with a population exceeding 45,000 residents, according to the Town of Garner. The Garner Police Department, a nationally accredited agency led by Chief Chris Adams, is staffed by 83 sworn officers and 15 civilian personnel who handle local traffic enforcement and crash investigations like this one.
This crash adds to a concerning countywide pattern. Wake County recorded 94 traffic fatalities in 2024, the second-highest total among North Carolina's 100 counties behind Mecklenburg County, per NCDOT crash data. Statewide, 378 of the 1,528 traffic fatalities recorded in North Carolina in 2025 involved alcohol-impaired drivers, according to the N.C. Governor's Highway Safety Program — meaning roughly one in four fatal crashes across the state involved someone driving under the influence.
When a vehicle strikes a residential structure like a garage, emergency crews typically follow technical rescue protocols that call for evaluating structural stability, securing utility lines, and installing temporary shoring before the vehicle can be safely extracted, per Fire Engineering. It's unclear whether those steps were needed at the White Oak Garden Way home following Friday's crash.
This is at least the second vehicle crash Garner police have responded to in recent months, following a hit-and-run T-bone crash on U.S. 70 in May. No further details about the driver's identity or the extent of damage to the home have been released.
