Cleveland Heights home sustains sixth car crash in 11 years

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) — A home at a notorious intersection in Cleveland Heights was the scene of a car crash over the holiday, and it was just the latest in a series of accidents on the same property.

It happened late Christmas Day at about 10:30 p.m., when a 62-year-old South Euclid woman lost control of her car at the end of South Taylor Road and crashed into two boulders in front of a home on Fairmount Boulevard. The car then skidded up into the front yard.

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Investigators said the driver initially fled the scene on foot, but eventually returned and is now facing charges that include failure to control.

Incredibly, the same house and property have been hit by speeding and out-of-control cars six times over the last eleven years. In some cases, the drivers were being chased by police and in others, they were impaired.

In some of the accidents, homeowner John Gall was inside his home and somehow escaped unharmed.

“It’s in the back of my mind, you know? I can’t escape the fact that it could happen at any time and, you know, I guess I’ve kind of gotten used to it a little bit,” Gall told FOX 8 News on Nov. 9.

Gall maintains the city of Cleveland Heights is to blame for damage from the crashes because the city, as part of a street construction project years ago, removed a guardrail that protected his house.

“My contention is: I bought a house that had a guardrail — a known safety barrier. They took it away and didn’t replace it with anything better,” he said.

In response, Cleveland Heights Communications Director Mike Thomas told us, “We are always sympathetic to Mr. Gall. I mean, it’s a bad situation when you have people continuing to do something wrong and potentially hitting your home.”

Thomas said Cleveland Heights searched for a solution to the problem for years, after learning that state guidelines prevented the city from placing a guardrail in front of the home. They eventually decided to place the two large boulders in the front yard as a protective barrier.

“Most often, what happens is that somebody is breaking the law, somebody is going too fast or they’re impaired or both, and there’s very little we can do to stop that from happening ahead of time,” said Thomas.

But a frustrated Gall told us, “They failed to address the actual issue and they’ve done it for years. I’m just sick of it and I’m not going to roll over.”

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As the accidents have continued to pile up and Gall’s blood pressure has gone up, Cleveland Heights proposed a permanent solution in November that called for the use of tax dollars to buy the house from Gall and tear it down.

“It seems like that may be a solution here — that at least it mitigates the possibility of somebody being in the house and being injured,” said Thomas.

But Gall said he has no intention of moving and he has now hired an attorney to represent him in his fight with Cleveland Heights City Hall. Civil attorney Marlon Primes maintains the city should be able to construct a barrier that works and meets state guidelines.

When asked about what Gall has been through over the past 11 years, Primes told FOX 8, “Your heart cries out for someone that is retired, has paid off his mortgage, pays his taxes and, as a consequence of a barrier being removed, he doesn’t feel safe in his own home.

“So, it’s an easy case to take on. My client would prefer to stay in a house that he had lived in for 26 years.”

If the two sides cannot reach a compromise, the case could end up in civil litigation.

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