Spring Valley

Spring Valley Family Has Long Road Ahead After Car Crashes Into Home, Killing Beloved Maltese

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It could take as long as a year for a Spring Valley family to rebuild their home after a car crashed through their living room last week. The accident killed their family pet and just missed the homeowner who was sitting on the sofa at the time.

Jake and Karen Lowe have lived on their Jamacha Road home for over 30 years. They raised their kids and grandkids there, but the sense of comfort and safety that it has provided for all that time vanished in a moment.

“It’s the things you see in movies or you see it on the news about someone else and you just can’t ever imagine it happening to you," the Lowes' daughter Katie Aragon said.

Aragon wasn’t in the house at the time of the crash, but her father was watching TV on the couch while her mother and sister Cassie were upstairs in their bedrooms.

"It was very terrifying for him, and it hit in the same spot my mom ordinarily sits and was sitting an hour earlier," Aragon said.

A white four-door Ford sedan plowed through the Lowes’ backyard fence and torpedoed their living room. It didn't take long for their home to be red-tagged, meaning it's unsafe for people to live until repairs are made. Tt took days and the help of a structural engineer to get the Lowes' car out of the garage.

The lowe’s weren’t injured and the driver of the car wasn’t seriously hurt, but the Lowes' dog, a Maltese named Charlie, could not be saved.

"He was laying on the couch that got hit by the car. It took my family a long time to find him, they don’t even know how long," Aragon said.

The Lowes are still living in a hotel until they can find something more permanent.

"I just feel so helpless. Like, what can I do for my family? They don’t have a place to live, they lost their dog," Aragon said.

The family was told permits necessary for repair work to begin could take six weeks. Getting the house and family back to whole could take a year.

"In your safe place where you’re supposed to be relaxing, enjoying your family time. That’s never going to feel that way to them again," Aragon said. "My hope is that they can heal from this trauma, get the support that they need.”

Witnesses said it was one of the Lowes' own neighbors who was behind the wheel. They suffered an apparent may medical emergency which caused them to crash.

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