RITTMAN, Ohio– When a van ran the intersection in front of their home late Wednesday, what happened next was something with which Kay and Randy Wright have become far too familiar.
“The sound enough just makes you sick at your stomach and this time I actually thought someone was hurt,” said Kay.
The van, with a 76-year-old woman at the wheel, crashed into and vaulted over six tons of boulders the Wrights intentionally placed in their yard; the van then rolled over in their yard just short of hitting the house.
It was the fourth time the same thing has happened in the 13 or 14 years they have lived at the home.
Fox 8 News visited them in 2011 when a car ran the intersection while Randy was blowing snow off of their driveway.
The car came up their driveway hitting the snowblower but just missing hitting Randy.
It continued up their driveway, crashing into their garage.
“If somebody wasn’t watching over me and I wasn’t facing down the road at that time, I firmly believe that I would be either severely injured and never the same again or my wife would be planning a funeral,” Randy told Fox 8 News shortly after the crash.
Six years later, Kim says the video from their home security cameras is still hard to watch.
“It actually is heartbreaking. It’s sad; it’s scary because if Randy would have just done his normal turn around and come back up the drive he wouldn’t have seen it coming and that car it would have just, it would have killed him,” said Kim.
The 2011 crash was the reason the Wrights chose to move their driveway entrance farther to the north, change the entrance to their garage and put the boulders in their yard.
But the cars keep coming.
Rittman Police Chief Ray Arcuri says he has a similar reaction when he sees the video of the crash from this past Wednesday.
“How dangerous it was that another vehicle wasn’t hit, a pedestrian wasn’t hit. The home wasn’t struck,” said Arcuri.
The driver of the van reportedly did not suffer serious injuries.
But the Wrights say they have done about all they can think to do to protect themselves and now they want to turn to the city to try and brainstorm some additional solutions.
