HARLINGEN — Young children were playing in their front yard. Grownups were nearby, listening to music and dancing.
Then the unthinkable happened.
A car crashed through the chain-link fence around the yard and plowed into the family — obliterating the dining room in the front of the house in the process.
“I heard a scream and a big crash and when I got up — I was on the ground, my sisters were on the ground, my nieces and nephews were, too,” family member Victor Arellano said yesterday afternoon as he stood in the street, staring at the wreckage of the house.
“My mother was screaming for someone to help us.”
Of the six people who were injured, five were children ages 1 to 8. A 1 1/2-year-old boy had to have his arm amputated, a family member said.
The crash occurred Thursday night at the house in the 100 block of East Madison Avenue.
Of those injured, a 1-year-old boy was in critical condition and was being transported to a San Antonio hospital. A 7-year-old girl was in critical but stable condition.
An 8-year-old girl, 5-year-old boy and 3-year-old boy were treated and discharged. The adult, a 28-year-old woman, was in stable condition.
Arellano, speaking in Spanish, said the family members had just arrived at the house Thursday evening when the crash occurred.
“Some ladies got off a car, but they didn’t help us. They just stood there looking at us lying on the ground,” he said in an emotional voice, trembling and near tears.
“I got up and called the ambulance.”
He said the crash devastated the family.
“My brother is going to have surgery, my nephew is missing an arm, and my other niece is also in the hospital,” he said.
“It’s a huge tragedy for everyone.
“I’m asking for justice that things don’t just stay like that, to find out what happened.”
The driver of the gray Nissan Xterra that crashed into the house is a 65-year-old McAllen man, who was not further identified by police. There were no immediate reports of injuries to anyone inside the vehicle.
Police Chief Jeffry Adickes said the initial investigation showed that the driver was stopped at the nearest stop sign and accelerated as he turned from northbound to westbound.
No charges had been filed as of yesterday afternoon, but police were continuing their investigation into the cause and circumstances surrounding the crash.
Police Commander John Parrish declined to go into detail beyond a press release, saying the accident was still under investigation.
Arellano said he is looking for answers.
“How can you be coming so fast in a 30 mile an hour zone, crash into a house and knock down everything and nothing happens to him or the lady and the don’t even have the dignity to get off and help us or something?” he asked.
By ED ASHER
Staff Writer
The wood frame house is in shambles.
A gray Nissan Xterra had crashed into it shortly before 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
What at first appeared to be a porch was actually the family’s dining room. The car had plowed through it.
A white, wooden beam was propping up one of the front edges of the house. A family member said emergency responders were the ones who found the beam and wedged it under the roof to support the house.
The front yard was entirely covered in debris, including the front door, which lay on the ground.
A mangled Texas olive tree was leaning toward the ground, its broken limbs lying on the yard.
The house is situated at East Madison Avenue and 2nd Street, between the Harlingen Community Center to the east and a building to the west housing a boxing gym.
East Madison is a one-lane, one-way, westbound residential street until it reaches 3rd Street, where it opens up into two, one-way lanes going past the Community Center on its way west to Commerce Street.
There are no speed zone signs posted on that section of Madison.
