Aspen Hill Woman Narrowly Missed by Crashed SUV in Her Living Room

It was just past midnight on July 5 when an exhausted Sybille Faucette switched off the television, dismissed thoughts of starting another load of laundry and sat down on her living room couch in Aspen Hill, where she usually fell asleep.

Faucette, a middle school teachers' assistant, was looking forward to joining her husband, Keith, and their 12-year-old son, Sebastian, who had already gone to bed.

"We didn't go to the fireworks that night because we had just decided to stay at home," said Keith Avery. "It had been a very busy weekend, so we were kind of tired and had just decided to relax."

But the tranquil night at home was about to be literally shattered. 

A SUV driven by a 22-year-old Carol Mariana Ugalde-Orias ripped through a rear sliding glass door and then through the laundry and living rooms, splintering a china cabinet and spraying daggers of glass and projectiles of wood at Sybille Faucette.

The vehicle itself missed Faucette on the couch in the living room by inches before coming to a stop in the dining room.

"Sybille said that she looked up and saw the truck coming and had about a second to turn to her right and get out of the way. She got up and tried to jump, but before she knew it, all of the debris and everything else went over there with her, and the car was almost right on top of her," said Keith Avery. 

"She usually falls asleep on the couch watching television, but this time, she didn't, so the truck passed on her left," said Keith Avery. "If she had gone to lay down on the couch this time, she'd be dead, because the truck would have run right over her."

According to court records, Ugalde-Orias was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, as well as failing to present a driving license.

Sybille Faucette, who declined to be interviewed for this report, escaped with cuts on her face, forearms, shoulders and abdomen. She was treated for multiple cuts, back pain and shock at Montgomery General Hospital.

"Of course, I get a little angry because [the driver] almost killed my wife and my son just out driving and so-called having a good time," said Keith Avery. "I know that it could have been so much worse, but how can I not help being a little bit upset about that?"

Police told Avery that if the vehicle had not been slowed by collisions with a fence, two road signs and two parked cars, the speeding vehicle might have gone airborne, potentially landing on Faucette.

"I saw nothing but carnage -- the broken glass, the demolished furniture," said Keith Avery. "It looked just like a bomb had gone off in my living room or like a tornado had ripped through it."

Their house boarded up and condemned, the family spent much of Tuesday in their car, with Sybille on pain medication, until checking into a hotel at about 1 p.m. 

They finally sat down to a family dinner in a restaurant at about 7:30.

"We spent 13 hours, give or take, in the car. I was on the phone most of the day and also trying to dodge the reporters and the news crews that kept calling me," said Avery. 

"We had to call the insurance company," said Avery. "We had to talk about what they were going to pay for and not pay for, where we were going to stay and what we were going to do with the house."

Sybille Faucette told her husband that she was sitting on the edge of the couch facing the back door when the red SUV came crashing into their house. 

"I was half asleep in the bedroom, so when I heard the crash, and I thought that it was an accident on the street. But then, I heard my wife screaming, and I heard my son screaming from his room for his mommy," said Keith Avery.

"When I saw my wife, all of the flying glass and everything had flown on top of her. But she had already dug herself out," said Keith Avery. "She saw that she was bleeding, and that the truck was about three inches from being on top of her. I called the paramedics right away. They were there in about 10 minutes."

Keith Avery shudders when considering how tragically differently things might have been.

"Just before the crash, my wife had told our son to turn off the computer and to go and clean his room," said Keith Avery. "So he had left the chair in the living room and went to go and clean his room."

Keith Avery, in turn, may have saved his own life with his decision to go to bed rather than work on Sybille's resume at the dining room table. Sybille herself told him she planned to do a load of laundry.

"Normally, at that time of night, what she would do is let the dog out of the back and then put clothes in the washer," said Keith Avery. "But something told her to wait."

The computer, the dining room table and the washing machines -- all of which were in the SUV's path -- were destroyed. 

"The lady killed the washer and dryer, so if [Sybille] had done the laundry, she would have been killed. My son would have been killed too, because the lady would have driven right over him," said Avery.

"I hope that she realizes what she has done. I mean, she almost killed three people," said Avery. "I don't wish ill on anyone, but for someone to get behind the wheel of an SUV being that drunk?"

Note: This article has been updated to correct Sybille's last name.