WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Owners of the duplex on Speedway Avenue, where a car crashed through the walls of a bedroom, are thankful the tenant wasn’t home at the time.
The car went completely through the bedroom and into the kitchen taking out everything in its path and it’s not the first time.
“They hit the curb, launched up and over the rock,” duplex owner Meg Ramsey said.
Just after 1 o’clock Sunday morning.
“And all the way through the tenant’s bedroom, the beds just completely mangled,” Ramsey said.
A black Hyundai smashed into a duplex in the 1600 block of Speedway Avenue.
“And through the closet and into the kitchen,” Ramsey said.
Even with signs and a rock barrier, this ongoing issue continues to persist.
“You stand in the bedroom, you’re looking straight down that turn lane, so he came right up, perfectly. It’s just shocking,” Ramsey said.
The problem is not just with this specific stop sign, as the city of Wichita Falls conducted a speeding survey on Speedway in the fall of 2018. We learned more about the findings in May of 2020.
“We’ve got signs posted but a sign is only as good as the people that are going to obey the message of that sign,” Wichita Falls Director of Aviation, Traffic and Transportation John Burrus said.
Two months after we learned of the findings, Ramsey and her husband dealt with the first car hitting the house. Even after getting a yellow reflective sign and those rocks as barriers, it happened again.
“It was a call we never expected to get, cause we took precautions or thought we took precautions to protect it,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said after their first experience, they wouldn’t allow someone new to move in until they put some type of barrier in behind the sign. But now they feel like this proves more needs to be done.
“To see if we can get speed bumps, flashing lights something to bring attention because if she would’ve been home, she would be dead,” Ramsey said.
An issue they never really thought they’d have to keep dealing with.
“To know that we could have lost someone, you know we got into owning homes, we thought we’d be fixing refrigerators and leaky toilets and stuff. Not worrying about somebody’s life. So that’s really difficult to deal with,” Ramsey said.
Thankful the tenant wasn’t home that night, now searching for more solutions.
Now the rock barrier may look a little off. It’s because the tow truck had to move the rock out of the way a little to get the car out of the house but Ramsey plans on making calls to the city to see what steps they can take next. Whether that’s more signage or lights or constructing a larger barrier.