Pickup crashes into Salt Lake home; police suspect drunk driving


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SALT LAKE CITY — Mario Guiterrez knew right away by the noise coming from his living room that a vehicle had just crashed into his Rose Park house.

"If the truck would have veered over another five feet and missed the center support for the home, he would have went through the first wall and into my bedroom and ran me over. I'd be dead," he said. "I could be dead right now. I mean, I came so close to him killing me."

Guiterrez was the first to reach the driver, who was still in the pickup truck unconscious with his foot on the gas pedal.

"I slapped him in the face three or four good times, as hard as I could. He woke up, looked at me briefly, mumbled something and then passed out again," he said. "I yelled as loud as I could with everything I had, and he still did not respond."

Bernabe Urcino-Saldago, 39, told investigators he drank 36 beers and took cocaine the night before his pickup truck crashed through the wall of the house that Guiterrez shares with his parents, according to a Salt Lake County Jail report. Urcino was arrested and booked into jail for investigation of DUI, negligent collision and not having a driver's license.

Just after 9 a.m. Monday, the driver of the truck failed to make a turn near the corner of 1030 West and 1275 North and drove through a yard, over a small stone retaining wall and into the living room of a house, said Salt Lake police detective Greg Wilking.

The truck came to rest with half of the vehicle inside the residence. Guiterrez and his mother were home at the time but in another room, Wilking said. They were not injured. But typically, he says both his father and mother work in the living room near the window.

"If anyone would have been up and around like we normally are during the day, chances are he would have run one of us over," Guiterrez said.

The family dog, who was in the living room, somehow escaped uninjured.

"I don't know how the dog survived," Guiterrez said. "The dog's bed now has a couch and a coffee table on (it)."

Guiterrez told police he could distinctly smell alcohol on the driver's breath. He grabbed the man's pants and pulled his leg off the gas pedal and turned the car off.

"It was just extremely loud. It was, like, deafening, the motor," he said.

He could also smell gasoline from the truck that had leaked into his house.

Paramedics determined the man did not suffer serious injuries, according to Wilking. Urcino was then given field sobriety tests and was taken to Salt Lake police headquarters for additional tests.

Despite the large hole left in the house, Wilking said the pickup did not hit any load bearing walls or beams and the house was still structurally sound.

Guiterrez said he recognized the man as someone who lives in his neighborhood.

According to Utah state court records, in 2010 Urcino was convicted for not having a driver's license, a class C misdemeanor, as well as another traffic violation. He was sentenced to probation.

Contributing: Shara Park and Sandra Yi

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