Nearly two dozen drivers have crashed into this California home. ‘You get used to it’

When Ray Minter woke to a loud boom jolting his house in 2016, the California resident first thought it was an earthquake.

Then he realized it was just another vehicle slamming into his San Jose home, KPIX reported. It’s happened 23 times since construction of a highway offramp nearby in 1972, he told KTVU.

“I wish I could tell you I was scared, but after years of dealing with this, you get used to it,” Minter told the San Jose Spotlight.

In the 2016 crash, a 2016 GMC High Sierra truck going 105 mph wound up in Minter’s living room after demolishing his garage and Honda Accord, he told the publication.

Other crashes over the years have wrecked fences, smashed vehicles, crushed mailboxes and slammed into his home.

“Four times where they’ve gone as far as the kitchen,” Minter told KPIX, saying most of the crashes happen at night. “Every time we’ve been hit, we’ve been home.”

Minter’s insurance company paid to install brick walls and concrete-mounted metal poles to try to protect his home, but he had to replace them after the latest crash, KTVU reported.

Vehicles speeding off an Interstate 680 offramp built in 1972 cause most of the crashes, Minter told KTVU. Drivers miscalculate their speed and end up in his yard or inside his house trying to make a right turn onto a surface street.

“The city says it’s the state’s responsibility because the highway belongs to the state, and the state blames the city,” Minter told the San Jose Spotlight. “I just gave up trying to talk to them.”

San Jose officials said they have applied for a grant to try to resolve the problem, including a landscape median down the middle of the street, KNTV reported. The work will cost millions of dollars and take up to 10 years to complete.

Until then, Minter says he’ll deal with the problem, just as he has for the past 50 years.

“Where else am I going to go?” Minter asked the KPIX. “You don’t really think about it. You listen for car wrecks.”

This story was originally published August 17, 2022 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Nearly two dozen drivers have crashed into this California home. ‘You get used to it’."