Family Displaced After Drunk Driver Crashes Into Riverdale Park Home

Update, 12:48 p.m.: The driver of an SUV that slammed into a Riverdale Park home at approximately 3:20 a.m. Sunday has been arrested for DUI and issued several citations, according to the Riverdale Park Police Department.

Even though a couple and their three daughters were asleep in the house on East Beale Circle near East West Highway, police report no serious injuries to the family or to the driver and passenger in the vehicle.

Wilson Cuevas said he bought the home about one year ago, did work on the house, and then moved in with his family three to four months ago. He said he and his wife, who is five months pregnant, were asleep on the first floor in the room behind the living room, which received the brunt of the damage. Their three daughters, ages 3 to 7, were asleep on the second floor above the kitchen.

Cuevas was limping when he arrived back at his house at approximately 11 a.m. Sunday. He said it was only a minor injury from a nail. 

"But I feel good," he said to reporters outside his damaged home, clutching two family photographs. "Thank you, God, that was the only [injury]."

He said he awoke to a "boom, like the whole house was coming down.” He exited his room and saw the vehicle, and a guy running away, he said.

The home is now condemned.

Hugh Owens Jr., director of Emergency Services of Emergency Board Up, which was working to secure the building late Sunday morning, said the home is salvageable.

AJ Ciattei, Emergency Board Up project manager, who was on the scene Sunday morning, said it was too early to provide an accurate estimate for the cost of damages.

He said his crew would spend about four to five hours Sunday working to raise up the roof on the front part of the house and install temporary walls to avoid further damage and prevent looting.

"It doesn't look that bad for me to secure the property,” he said, surveying the damage.

Neighbor Donna Riddle said she awoke to the sound of the vehicle striking the house, even over the sound of her television and a window-unit air conditioner.

"I thought first it was our house," she said. She went outside "And then I heard the people yelling bloody murder."

Cuevas said he and his family were staying with his father late Sunday morning, but they might stay at a hotel Sunday night.

Councilmember Jonathan W. Ebbeler, Ward 1, wrote in an e-mail expressing his sympathy for the family: "As a victim of a fire in March and still displaced from my home, I have enormous empathy for the family and what emotions and thoughts they are going through now and in the upcoming weeks."

Update, 11:23 a.m.: Patch has confirmed that Wilson Cuevas and his wife, who is five months pregnant, were sleeping when the SUV plowed into their home on East Beale Circle near East West Highway in Riverdale Park early Sunday.

Cuevas' three daughters, ages 3 to 7, were sleeping on the second floor of the home.

The family purchased the home about one year ago and have been doing work on it. They moved in three to fours months ago.

Update, 9:49 a.m.: A Riverdale Fire Department spokesman reports that the SUV was driven by a male who was accompanied by a female passenger.

For instant updates follow Riverdale Park-University Park Patch on Facebook and Twitter.

He confirmed that firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after 4 a.m.

"The damage was pretty extensive," he said. "We were not able to let the family back in [to the house]. They had to make arrangements to stay somewhere else."

The Hyattsville Fire Department sent a rescue squad to the scene early this morning.

Original post, 9:31 a.m.: An SUV slammed into a home on East Beale Circle near East West Highway and caused major damage, reports NBC Washington.

At around 4 a.m., the vehicle went through the front of the house, missed the front door and knocked down two walls of the house, according to NBC Washington.

The family of five were home at the time; no injuries were reported.

Editor's Note: This article has been corrected. In an earlier version of this story, we incorrectly stated the time of the incident. We regret the error.