Yuba City Neighborhood 'Traumatized' After High Speed Drivers Repeatedly Crash Into Homes
YUBA CITY (CBS13) — Neighbors in a west Yuba City community want Sutter County leaders to take action after repeated car crashes into homes.
The latest incident happened Sunday night. Cellphone video shows a home on the corner of Cherry Street and Anna Drive erupt in flames after a driver crashed into the garage. The family inside had just been making dinner and were looking at their garden when, suddenly, they ran for their lives.
"As soon as I call 9-1-1, I see the sparks just light up and this fire just consumes this whole part of the garage," said Vimal Saroya, who lives at the home with his family.
Saroya said he watched this same thing happen to their neighbors across the street four times over the last several years, and now, he's experiencing a dreaded deja vu.
In 2018, CBS13 interviewed Saroya about the crashes at his neighbor's house. He worried he'd be next.
"Since I've always been the viewer of the crash, not the experiencer, it hit me in a completely different way. I was no longer the bystander," he said.
It's hitting the whole neighborhood.
"Right now, we're paranoid about sleeping in our own bedrooms," said Greg Stanford, Saroya's neighbor. "It's traumatizing."
After the first crashes, Yuba City officials installed guard rails and a light beacon off of Cherry Street, only for another house to be hit years later.
Now, the neighbors want to see speed bumps and a 3-way stop.
"I'm completely outraged that it has to come to this," said Sherry Herkal, a neighbor. "What's next?"
It's the same question Saroya is asking about the place he called home for 10 years.
"This is not my home anymore. This is not the home I knew a couple of hours ago, a day ago," he said. "That home is gone and now it's just time to move forward."