DETROIT – For decades now the home of Camille Lewis has been the final destination for cars going way too fast while exiting the Lodge Freeway.
“Just imagine waking up in the morning and hearing a loud boom. That was scary. We were raised in this house. That’s my grandparents’ house and since I can remember, somebody always runs into our house,” said Lewis.
The latest incident happened over the weekend when an SUV came crashing through the porch, just barely missing the rest of the home. But that’s not the biggest vehicle to crash into the Washburn home.
“Even a semi truck ran into the house before. It’s never ending,” said Lewis.
As you can imagine, because of this, insurance rates are starting to skyrocket for the family.
“Someone just ran into it eight months ago so this is like it keeps happening. It makes your insurance go up and we live in the city so it’s high,” Lewis added.
The home is a family house with children inside, so the residents have been pressuring the city to do something. Usually there’s always the same end result.
“We contacted the city several times and all they do is put up something like this that can be easily bent and it doesn’t prevent anything. I think the city should put up a light or something right here because it’s gonna keep happening and somebody is gonna seriously get hurt,” said Lewis.
Local 4 News reached out to the city which acknowledged the problem. However, they’re saying the responsibility also falls on MDOT. The good news is that they’re both currently working to redesign the ramp to keep this from happening more.
Detroit Department of Public Works Director, Dayo Akinyemi, sent Local 4 News this statement in regards to the situation.
“The city is aware of the traffic issues occurring at this intersection. We will inspect and repair the guardrails at this location. While there currently aren’t many safe immediate fixes, the city is working with MDOT to design an improvement plan that will mitigate the current traffic issues. We are working on funding and a contracting timeline, but construction is expected to be complete by end of year,” the statement read.