EUGENE, Ore. — Daniel Dasilvieri Bittar’s 21st birthday got out of control Thursday morning, and he crashed his car into a Eugene rehab center.
No one was hurt and the only damage caused was to the front lawn, but Serenity Lane director Dr. Ronald Schwerzler said he couldn’t help but notice the irony of the whole situation.
“I understand the fellow may have been trying to get there anyway,” said Schwerzler at his office on Friday. “If that’s the case, that’s good, but he ended up in the wrong way to do it. So, my hope is that he’ll get some help somewhere along the line.”
Bittar was lodged at the Lane County Jail on charges of driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving and second-degree criminal mischief.
The car tracks were still visible in front of the Serenity Lane Treatment Center on Friday.
Meanwhile, evidence from five other similar crashes could still be seen around Eugene—what Eugene Police called a rash of crashes into stationary objects by intoxicated drivers.
Eugene Police said these crashes all happened within 11 days.
On Tuesday, police said a vehicle crashed through a fence and into a shed on the 3400 block of Westward Ho Avenue.
Police reported two crashes on March 9: an SUV that drove through a fence and smashed into a pole near the 300 block of Hope Loop and a car that ran over a traffic meter at the corner of West Sixth Avenue and Chambers Street.
On March 7th, police said a vehicle crashed into a tree in front of a home on the 3900 block of Wolf Meadows Lane.
And on March 5th, police said a car slammed into a house on the 2000 block of Jefferson Street.
“Impaired drivers are fairly common,” said Eugene Police Capt. Rich Stronach outside the station on Friday, “but to have a rash where they’re actually driving into buildings is kind of uncommon.”
“We’re increasing our patrol for St. Patrick’s day,” he added, “actually not in response to cars crashing into buildings.”
