Hundreds of students at UC Berkeley got an early awakening Wednesday morning when a car slammed into their dormitory, severing a gas line and forcing evacuation of the building in the predawn hours.

Cal student Douglas William Perez, 21, was booked on suspicion of impaired driving and hit-and-run driving after his car jumped a sidewalk and crashed into Putnam Hall at the corner of College Avenue and Channing Way at about 2:50 a.m., police said.