San Jose home at dangerous intersection has been rammed by cars '23 times'
SAN JOSE (KPIX) - A homeowner who has lived at the same intersection in East San Jose for decades says cars have crashed onto his property at least 23 times. After all this time, he's still waiting for help from local officials to try and make the street in front of him less dangerous.
"Well the house shakes, first you think it's an earthquake, you hear the rumbling," Ray Minter explained about a recent crash at his house.
He says the incidents started to become more serious around 1973 and continue to get worse as drivers aren't slowing down and missing the lane they're entering for his fence or the front of his house.
"Four times where they've gone as far as the kitchen," he told KPIX 5 on Monday. "Every time we've been hit, we've been home."
Insurance covers most of the cost to repair his home and protect his property with new steel poles, a brick wall along part of the yard, and large rocks in the lawn. Those barriers alone have totaled more than $20,000 over the years as he replaces those destroyed by crashes and adds more features for protection.
"If I don't know have them here, they're surely going to kill one of us," Minter explains, even though he has been advised that the polls could lead to a lawsuit if someone gets injured.
Most of these wrecks happen after 10:30 p.m. and before 4 a.m. but he sees crashes at all hours, including during the evening traffic rush. Other homeowners have taken steps to try to protect their property as they deal with the same issue in the neighborhood. Minter has asked for help from city and state agencies, local elected leaders, and lawyer but none resulted in a helpful solution.
"Take out the center lane, no right hand turns for the center," he suggested when pointing to the street coming off of I-680 to Jackson. He thinks that right turn is creating a challenge for drivers traveling too fast and possibly under the influence.
The City of San Jose told KPIX 5 it has applied for a grant that would help fund a project to make improvements in the area, including the intersection that touches Minter's property. The proposal would also look into adding a median along a corridor of Jackson Ave. the covers the I-680 off ramp. Approval of the grant could come next year with the money made available in the summer of 2023.
"Where else am I going to go? My neighborhood, as far as I'm concerned, these couple of blocks, nobody bothers you," Minter said in response to possibly moving. He has become used to the challenge and says he does not lose any sleep over the possibility of another crash at his house. "You don't really think about it, you listen for car wrecks."