DoorDash crash: Suspected DUI driver slams into delivery car in El Cajon

A suspected drunk driver crashed his pickup truck into a parked food delivery vehicle in El Cajon over the weekend. Inside, there was a grandmother and two small children.

The accident happened on Mollison Avenue near Wilfred Street on Saturday night. It was reported as a truck into a house. Police and paramedics responded quickly, only to find a few minor injuries but the crash site teaming with people.

“I heard a big loud thunder,” witness Carlos Gomez Perez said.

“This is the second accident that I have ran out to and tried to help in the last three months,” said witness Paul, who wished not to appear on camera.

“He was, like, trying to escape. I told him, ‘Turn off your car. Turn off your car.’ He was really out of it,” neighbor  Mariely Cuevas said.

To hear the neighbors of Mollison Avenue near Wilfred tell it, they had this calamity well in hand.

Paul is an EMT in the military. His attention was on the 59-year-old grandmother trapped in the DoorDash vehicle that was hit.  

“People love to race up and down all the time. You can see all the burnout marks with people doing everything,” he said.

Perez was keeping an eye on the pickup truck driver, who appeared very disoriented.   

“The way he was behaving, the way he was slurring his words,” Perez said.

Cuevas says the driver of the pickup was caught in the fence but tried to leave.

“He was fighting. He was like, ‘No, I will pay for everything. Let me go. I will go away,'” Cuevas said.

Witnesses say the pickup truck driver was northbound on Mollison Avenue and that he crossed two or three lanes of traffic before slamming into the DoorDash delivery vehicle, which was parked in front of a driveway. He hit it with such force that the car was pushed 30-40 feet. It appears by the tire tracks that there was no effort to brake.

Inside the delivery car were two girls, one 7 and the other 3, and their grandmother who was pinned by the airbag.

 “We were able to cut the airbag to get a better look at her,” Paul said.

The driver was outside the car about to deliver takeout to a nearby house.

The pickup is registered to 48-year-old David Blackston. El Cajon police arrested a David Blackston that night. He is charged with drunk driving.

Perez was determined not to let him leave the scene.  

“‘You’re not going anywhere.’ I waited there till the cops showed up,” Perez said.

By all accounts, the family had themselves a close call. As for the neighbors, they proved ready for just about anything.