Unless It Happens to You

Teenaged carjackers crashed into a house in Castro Valley: [bold added]

The car hit the home of two elderly women at 12:30 am, destroying the garage and narrowly missing their bedrooms...A neighbor helped the two residents retrieve some items so they could go stay somewhere else. The crash severed the gas line and knocked out the power.

Pictures of the Castro Valley incident reminded me of the damage (photo, right) to a house a block away from our home in 2004. Teenagers (is there a pattern here?) crashed at high speed into the garage. Fortunately, no one was home.

Since then the house has been repaired, a brick-and-wrought-iron barrier (at waist-high it's barely a fence) now protects the property, and flashing crosswalk signals have been added nearby. Everyone would say such a freakish accident won't happen again---unless it happens to you.