Close Call For Family After Alleged Drunk Driver Crashes Into Yard

An East El Paso County family is worried after a drunken driving suspect crashed into their home’s rock wall and yard.

Eva Valles said that on Christmas Eve, as the family was getting ready to open gifts at about 10:30pm, a car crashed into their back yard, smashing into her daughters’ swing set. Valles lives on Gentry Way, which is off of Eastlake Road and Rojas Street and next to a sharp curve. Her yard is immediately next to Eastlake.

“People could have been out here. It’s not unusual for my husband, or if we have company over, they come and sit outside even as cold as it is. Put a jacket on and sit outside, watch the stars — it’s a beautiful sky. And we kind of miss that now,” said Valles, during an interview Wednesday in her backyard.

Valles said a car also crashed into her neighbor’s home a few months ago.

Valles’ four daughters, ages 1 to 13, usually play in the same spot where the car crashed, she told ABC-7. The yard was covered with the fallen pieces of the rock wall, the car’s license plates and bumper and the twisted tubes of her daughters’ swing set.

It wasn’t just a close call for Valles’ daughters. She has five dogs that are usually in the backyard. Valles had brought them inside the house on Christmas Eve because of the cold weather. Twenty minutes after bringing the dogs in, the car wrecked into her yard.

“Now they’re confined to cages and a small garage,” said Valles about her dogs, which range from a Pomeranian to a Saint Bernard.

“My 3-year old and my 1-year old (daughters) — we come outside and play on the swing set. That’s our daily activity, and right now, they’re stuck inside. There’s no enjoyment, and we’re kind of fearful at night because you feel no kind of protection. Anyone can just walk in through my backyard, if feels like it,” Valles said.

Eight-year-old Elizabeth Valles remembers playing on her swing set.

“We used to turn them, so we’d go dizzy, like if we were actually turning,” she said.

Valles told ABC-7 that Jorge Soto, the man who wrecked into her yard was arrested arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

ABC-7 called County Commissioner Willie Gandara and alerted him to Valles’ problem. He ordered a county engineer to evaluate the area. Valles saw the engineer doing that Wednesday. She said it appears the driver who hit her rock wall is uninsured, and she is working with her home insurance company to fix her yard.