Parkland family jolted awake by two-car crash

PARKLAND, Wash. — A family is counting its blessings after a car plowed into their apartment just as they were waking up.

The crash happened at about 9:40 a.m. Sunday at the Sherwood Terrace Apartments in Parkland when a man allegedly drove right into his estranged girlfriend's vehicle. The impact flipped his vehicle into the apartment building.

The family said they are still shaken after the car plowed into their unit, but the apartment manager worked quickly to get it patched up. Still, they won't soon forget the scary wakeup call they got Sunday morning.

Manuel Martinez says he and his wife were still in bed when they were jolted awake. The impact split the sheetrock right above their headboard.

"Yeah, a very big noise," said Martinez.

The worst damage was to the bathroom. Their toilet was destroyed.

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But they had to look outside to figure out what had happened.

"We saw a car, two cars crash together," said 11-year-old Hector Martinez.

And there they were. Two vehicles, crumpled from the force of the crash.

"And that woman went to the hospital," he said. "And I pray for her because she's hurt."

Pierce County Sheriff's deputies say a 34-year-old woman had recently gotten a restraining order against her estranged boyfriend. Investigators said the 37-year-old man spotted her driving her Honda and T-boned her vehicle going about 50 mph.

The force was so great, his Volkswagen flipped over and into the apartment building. Both of them had to be extricated from their respective vehicles, but the Martinez family says she was hurt the worst.

Manuel says he has never lived through anything like this.

"No," he said, "don't see anything like that."

Indeed, most mornings his older son would have been taking a shower in the bathroom when the accident happened.

"Not today," he said. "Yeah, very lucky."

Investigators say the woman was so badly hurt, she might die. If she dies and he survives,  this will become a case of homicide.

Cox Media Group