Around 2:45 p.m., a 2-door 1996 Chevrolet Monte Carlo heading east on North Garver veered across the double yellow line and off the left side of the road, barreling through yards and clipping the back end of a vehicle in a neighboring driveway before slamming into a tree.
Longtime Monroe resident Tammy Fraley said the car that crashed into her yard narrowly missed her and her husband, both of whom had just sat down inside their home for a late lunch Sunday afternoon. Fraley said they heard “this big kaboom” and jumped to their feet, initially believing a vehicle had struck the home.
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“I immediately went into the house and called 911 for help ’cause I could tell that they were seriously injured,” she said.
Once on scene, emergency crews had to cut the man out of the vehicle. Both of the vehicle’s occupants were taken to Atrium Medical Center to be treated for their injuries.
There’s no word on the identities, ages and conditions of the driver and passenger, or if drugs, alcohol or excessive speed were factors in the crash as it remains under investigation, according to Monroe Police Department. The department did not have a finalized report available Tuesday afternoon.
Fraley, who has lived on the rural roadway for four decades, said speeding motorists have become “a tremendous problem” over the years. The 35 MPH speed limit is something Fraley said is “way too high” for the road.
“People come down the road and they just floor it,” she said. “They think it’s just a raceway from corner to corner, for some reason.”
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That, she said, has led to numerous vehicles veering off the road into ditches, knocking over mailboxes, damaging guard rails and plowing through residents’ front yards.
“Somebody needs to do something or one of us is going to get killed,” Fraley said. “We’re really lucky that car didn’t come right through the window. You’re not safe to be out here in your own front yard, mowing grass, checking your mail, doing anything.”
Other area residents agreed, including Nick Siegler, who lives on the corner and heard the car’s engine rev as it came around the bend.
Residents say previous crashes, including one into Fraley’s front yard several years ago, could be reduced or avoided altogether if North Garver was made into a wider, one-way road or if the speed limit was drastically lowered.
“They come around here and slide off into the yards,” Fraley said. “If they can get anybody to pull them out with a chain or a truck, they will.”
Siegler, a resident for approximately nine years, said he did just that for a motorist approximately two months ago, whose vehicle ended up with its back-end hung up in the culvert of the ditch.
There’s also been an uptick in the amount of tractor trailers illegally attempting to maneuver down the narrow roadway, residents said.
With no suggested speed for maneuvering the sharp corners leading to the road, which is east of Cincinnati-Dayton Road, it appears motorists attempt to see how fast they can take the road, Siegler said.
“The gentleman who owned the house before me moved the mailbox from one side of the driveway to another because it kept getting taken out,” he said.
Staff Writer Ed Richter contributed to this story.
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