OAKDALE—
Police in Oakdale are saying that the driver who crashed into a house Friday, prompting a gas leak and evacuations, was driving drunk.
The incident happened just before 8:30 p.m., near S. Wood Avenue and W. J Street, according to a release from the Oakdale Police Department. Police officers and fire crews were called out to the neighborhood after a car crashed into a house.
At the scene, authorities found that the home’s natural gas main had been broken. With no immediate way to shut off the gas, the whole block – from S. Wood Avenue to King Court – was evacuated.
The evacuation lasted for several hours, police say, forcing authorities to set up a temporarily shelter for the residents.
The driver, 51-year-old Manuel Dee Jimenez, was eventually arrested and booked at Stanislaus County Jail on DUI charges.