Living on a busy road can be stressful. You have to deal with noise and traffic, and just pulling out of your driveway can be a pain. Perhaps the only thing worse is living at the end of a tee junction, as one Ohio man has found out to his dismay.
John Gall lives down in Cleveland Heights, right on Fairmount Boulevard. It’s a nice spot, but there’s a problem. John’s house sits right in front of the tee junction between Fairmount and South Taylor Road. Living in this unenviable position has seen three cars crash into his home in the last decade.
As covered by News 5 Cleveland, Gall has had enough. He’s demanding the city take action to protect his home.
Gall first moved into his house in 1996. Initially, his home sat behind a guardrail, but that was removed in the early 2000s. With his home left undefended from oncoming cars, the trouble soon began.
“Well, the first crash actually took out my pickup truck that was parked in the driveway,” Gall told News 5 of a crash in 2012. Fast forward to 2021, and a police chase ended when the fleeing car went barreling into the kitchen. Gall had been asleep, just 10 to 15 feet away, according to Newsweek’s report at the time. Gall was waken by the commotion, with police approaching the home. “I stuck my head out the broken front window and said, ‘Please don’t shoot me, I am the homeowner,'” Gall told the outlet.
That horrifying incident was followed quickly by another crash in 2022, which destroyed Gall’s garage. 2023 then brought a near miss, with an errant car narrowly missing the house and coming to rest on Gall’s lawn. The incidents have continued, despite all the flashing lights and speed bumps installed by the city to make drivers aware of the intersection. Even a 35 mph speed limit hasn’t stopped cars from crashing into Gall’s property.
Beyond the repeated reconstructions and safety concerns, it’s becoming hard to insure the building. “I can’t get homeowners insurance… I currently have insurance, but they jacked the rates, and if I have one more claim I’m being dropped,” he says. “I pursued other insurance companies… nobody will touch me.”
The city has stopped short of reinstating the guardrail, citing engineering advice. “Based on the advice of our engineering firm, we could not recommend and it would not be safe to install a guardrail at that location,” then-Mayor Seren told Cleveland 19 in 2021. Still, it has taken some measures to rectify the issue. Two large granite boulders were placed on Gall’s lawn to act as a barrier, with the rocks catching two cars in a single weekend in 2023.
However, Gall didn’t accept this as a permanent solution. “My contention is that I bought a house that had a guardrail, a known safety barrier, they took it away and didn’t replace it with anything better,” he told Fox 8 Cleveland shortly after the incidents. In response, the City of Cleveland noted it was a tough situation. “We sympathize enormously with Mr. Gall,” stated Mike Thomas, the Cleveland Heights communications director. “Having the threat of cars running into your house, I mean, that has to be pretty difficult to live with.”
With state guidelines apparently preventing the reinstallation of the original guardrail, the city instead proposed an alternative solution. It would offer to buy the house from Gall. However, he found this unacceptable. “I’ve lived here for 27 years, the house is paid for, I’ve put in all kinds of improvements,” he told Fox 8 in 2023. “Suddenly it’s a hazard and I have to move and they just offer me fair value. They failed to address the actual issue and they’ve done it for years. I’m just sick of it and I’m not going to roll over,” said Gall.
Ultimately, Gall would decline the buyout from the city. “They offered fair market value… well, I don’t have a mortgage, the house is paid off,” he told News 5. “What can I buy where I won’t have to pay that’s comparable to where I’m currently living?”
In his most recent interview with News 5, Gall’s frustration is obvious. In addition to his other efforts, he’s also painting signs to try and draw attention to his plight. “They ignore the problem… I’m the only one that’s ever been hit!” he says. “I’m painting another sign… this sign’s going to go somewhere with the one that says the cowards won’t talk, because they’re chicken bleep motherfroggers!”
“Do you think these signs help?” asked Nadeen Abusada, reporter for News 5. “They help me, because I don’t know what else to do,” replies Gall. “It’s cathartic.”
The Autopian has contacted the city for comment regarding the matter, but ultimately, no solution to Gall’s problem is yet forthcoming. He has engaged legal representation, and as reported by Cleveland Scene, he hopes that he can convince the city to install bollards for protection. Until then, he continues to live behind two large boulders, painting his signs to draw attention to his plight.
Image credits: News 5 Cleveland via YouTube screenshot, Google Street View
20′ Large I Beams buried in the ground at a 30 degree angle, Sharpen to make sure the Car is impaled and forced to the ground instead of into the air. Think Spear Carriers in front of the Roman army, defending the soldiers. This would let him keep most of hos front yard as well.
My parents lived on a road curving around Pine Lake in Michigan circa 1976. There was a short guardrail, but cars would occasionally go into the lake at night, either missing the guardrail or just altogether undeterred by it, so I wonder if adding that would save this guy’s house.
One night, after a hearing a splash, and looking out to see another driver missed the curve, my dad called the police. Whilst he was out talking with the driver & policeman, a second car launched airborne off the guardrail, going much further into the lake.
Eventually, the rental cottage we lived in was torn down, and road path was changed.
I would suggest working the DoD’s Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office(DRMO). Ask for a Phalanx CWIS.
This happens a little too often in the U.S. due to our poorly designed roads and car dependence. When will we learn?
Obviously, this calls for both a shield wall and a pit with spikes in the front yard.
This guy is crying about the guardrail being removed, but it sounds like two of the three crashes wouldn’t have even been prevented by a barrier. One hit his parked truck, and another hit his garage.
“I can’t get homeowners insurance… I currently have insurance”
If the signs didn’t make it clear who we’re dealing with, this should.
We once lived on a (road) corner lot and had 1-2 cars per year overshoot that sharp corner, drive up and off the edge and fly into the yard, usually landing with the front end poking into the lawn, a few feet from the house. It’s rather loud and unsettling.
Nothing has changed there since I lived there so I suspect it’s still happening.
If I lived there, I’d simply build a nice looking rock wall/fence out front. We’ve got rock fence all over Kentucky, and trust me, cars do not get past them.
Had similar situation in my hometown. City made homeowner take down the rock wall. He then went with telephone poles, same city response.
How about a big-ass mirror? If it fooled James Bond it should fool the average drunk.
Decorative spherical bollards and call it a day.
I think this is really a dispute over how close to the house the bollards need to go
Dude is a drama queen. Just take the buyout money and move on with your life.
Drama queen? He has cars smashing into his home. Move on? Like he says in the article, he’s not going to be able to afford the same as he already has. Victim blaming in this situation is amusing. He’s asking for a simple barrier, doesn’t seem like that big a deal.
I do wonder if their buyout value was a lowball offer as he implied, or sufficient to buy a similarly provisioned property for cash even with the current rates and he just doesn’t want to move (which I can understand, as moving does suck).
Assuming the buyout was the latter, it’ll likely end up as a big regret if his current insurer does drop him and then he can’t get insurance at all.
I’d never live in a house like this. Headlights flashing across bedroom windows is not restfull.
So would you say this Cleveland man is steaming?
He should try to find some old extra-large granite surface plates from machine shops and install them vertically like 2001 monoliths, sticking out of the ground. The surface plates might be cheap at auction because they’re not in much demand and expensive to move.
Want to know why he can’t get homeowners insurance because of this? Well, because Damage by Vehicles is a covered peril so his insurance keeps paying for the repairs when a car hits his house even though it’s not his fault at all. His insurance company can subrogate against the driver’s car insurance, but they can only subrogate for Actual Cash Value whereas his homeowners insurance paid the homeowner Replacement Cost. This creates an automatic deficit for his insurance company with every loss. It’s rather unfair.
Also, aren’t boulders and bollards deadlier than guardrails? Time to plant ten trees in his front yard?
Boulders are definitely more dangerous than guardrails. The city won’t put guardrails because they cost money and the city might be held liable. Boulders are cheap and you can’t blame the city for hitting a landscape rock.
That’s definitely not why. Guardrails aren’t recommended here because they’re not fit for purpose.
The point of a guardrail is to stop a car from going over an edge when contacted by the *side* of the car — they’re supposed to stop accidents where the car is at an acute angle to the guardrail. They are not designed to stop perpendicular accidents, where the front of the car hits the guardrail.
You make an excellent point. However, I’ve seen plenty of Armco at T Intersections and Dead Ends, so some are definitely using it that way. I wonder what is the proper solution?
Lots of people installed it in the 70s and 80s in places where it’s inappropriate. When intersections are updated, the rules are that it has to get torn out.
Boulders, bollards, or other landscape features are the right solutions. That and roads not designed to encourage speeding in residential areas.
I’m thinking sand filled barrels for this guys yard?
Maybe a gravel trap and one of those mountain pass runout ramps.
I was looking for some kind of thread like this.
I never actually designed highway but I know enough to say that a car would absolutely blow through guardrail in this case.
For the non-engineers in the crowd guardrail is designed to absorb and redirect cars that are traveling in (mostly) the same direction as the guardrail. “acute angles as Sam most accurately mentions). Impacts at a 90 degree angle (head on) the guardrail would easily get plowed through without removing much energy. This is especially true in the case of a very short section of guardrail where it couldn’t rely on a long inter-connected section of guardrail to help absorb the energy.
I feel bad for the owner. And I feel even worse because the solution he is insisting on won’t work. So even if he got what he wanted they would still continue to slam into his house.
Best we can do here is suggest more signs.
“No, the house is not moving toward you!”
I’m out of ideas already.
Go to a nearby Target store, rip out their nice giant billiard balls.
Put up a few signs 500 feet, 1000 feet away from that intersection. “Hey, House ahead! 1000 Feet!”
Guessing this won’t help, since those drivers were probably asleep or inebriated or both.
Put some deflecting barricades, so the neighbors get the cars instead.
I would get me some concreate and some heavy duty bollards, and make my own barrier along my property line, if the city won’t.
Bollards are the answer, but let’s use concrete instead.
Steel cable weaved into a giant net, strung between two telephone poles. I wouldn’t want to be the guy who hits it but it would certainly stop a car if built to the right specs
How about a big ramp? Then it wouldn’t just be his house at risk, and the city might do something.
I like your thinking
Make the cars fly right over and land on the rear neighbor
Yeah, let one or two people Bo-Duke it over his house into the house behind him and see what happens.
Oh sure, then it takes down the whole block’s power!
Sounds like a city problem to me
Giant repulsive magnet.
(or reverse the polarity of the obviously attractive house).
There was a house near where I used to live that was on a turn and folks going too fast would end up in the yard, but I don’t think any hit the house. They put up a strong rod iron fence eventually. Within a month it’d been hit multiple times and bent beyond recognition. This was in an unincorporated area, the county had no interest in helping. Rocks showed up eventually, but pretty sure they had to pay for it themselves.
Cleveland Rocks (2): Eclectic Bugaboo
I think you mean Cleveland Rocks (2): Kinetic Bugaboo
Mo boulders, Cleveland rocks you might say,
“Oh, Cleveland rocks
Yeah, Cleveland rocks
So find a place, grab a space
And never speed for more”
I would not find peace living there, but do understand reluctance to take buy out in that buying another would likely have substantial property tax increase. It would be 5x where I’m at.
The Wisconsin solution is filling the front yard with derelict Volkswagens.
this house in san jose too.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/18/san-jose-home-hit-by-reckless-drivers-23-times/
Another reason not to live in the East Side