Car crashed through yards, into house

Slick roads and a driver who had been drinking combined when a car plowed through yards and into a house in northeast Colorado Springs last night, police said.

Officers said just before 11:30 p.m. they were called with reports that a pickup had lost control and plowed through several fences and backyards in the 5000 block of Barnes Road.

The pickup then crashed into an electrical box, a natural gas meter and the house at 5068 Barnes Road, police said.

The house had one wall caved in by the truck. A woman who was in the house at the time was uninjured, police said.

The driver of the pickup, identified by police as Nicholas Fronczak, was soon off to the races again, police said.

He crashed through a few more backyards before plunging off a retaining wall and rolling the pickup. "He was detained shortly after by officers," a police report said.

The biggest concern, though, was the gas leak caused by the truck slamming a meter.

Sgt. Jim Meyers said firefighters arrived and managed to shut off the line before homes had to be evacuated, but the wreck left a few residences without utilities on a cold night.

Fronczak, whose age wasn't available, was cited on investigation of careless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of an accident, police said.