East San Jose home has been hit 23 times by speeding drivers exiting freeway
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A homeowner in East San Jose says his home has been hit by speeding cars over 20 times as they exit the 680 freeway. Now the city of San Jose says it’s hoping to get more funding to improve road safety in that area.
Ray Minter says he’s lived in this home since 1960 and since 1972, his property has been hit by cars 23 times. He says his insurance company has spent nearly $30,000 putting these steel poles in his front yard, but that hasn’t stopped people from crashing into his property.
"Since the freeway has been there, I’ve had four of the cars come through my house completely. All the other ones, have torn up my fence, and I’ve lost three cars in the yard," Minter said.
Ray Minter says he’s grateful that no one in his family has been seriously hurt or killed by the cars that have crashed into his family home over the last 50 years.
"My youngest niece, she was young. She was right here on the curb and a lady came flying across and hit her. She was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and broke her arm," Minter said.
Minter says the Jackson Street off-ramp on the 680 South freeway was built in 1972 and since then, drivers have repeatedly miscalculated how fast they were going when exiting the off-ramp. The cars wound up crashing into his property as they tried to turn right onto Jackson Street.
An east San Jose home has been hit by vehicles coming off the I-680 freeway as many as 23 times in 50 years, according to the owner.
"A few of them have been hurt pretty badly but most of them have been drunk. Like the guy in 2016. He was driving a 2016 GMC High Sierra. My car was right there where the rocks are, and he hit that at 105 miles per hour," Minter said
This is what Minter’s property looked like after the 2016 crash. He says he and his neighbor’s fencing was most recently damaged back in November. He had these steel poles installed a few years ago which helps, but he had to replace them after the last car crash.
"The City needs to do something to protect, not only us, but the whole neighborhood," Minter said.
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The City of San Jose says it’s applied for a $40 million grant from One Bay Area to put in place a safety project along Jackson Avenue from Berryessa Avenue to Story Road.
San Jose says if they are awarded the grant next year, design for the street improvement project will begin. The city says it has no authority to make changes to the off ramp, and they’re encouraging all drivers to slow down and obey the traffic laws.
An east San Jose home has been hit by vehicles coming off the I-680 freeway as many as 23 times in 50 years, according to the owner.
An east San Jose home has been hit by vehicles coming off the I-680 freeway as many as 23 times in 50 years, according to the owner.