A project to beautify a busy Lakewood intersection has had unintended consequences for nearby condominiums.
Residents at Clover Creek Crossing say the grassy berm at Gravelly Lake Drive and 112th Street has become a launching point for speeding drivers. Cars and motorcycles that miss the curve have crashed into the brick fence fronting the 10 condominiums, they say.
The most dramatic and dangerous crash occurred about 12:30 a.m. May 14 when a car catapulted off the berm during a police chase and crashed into Suzie Hostetter’s condominium.
Police arrested the driver, a 27-year-old Tacoma woman. No one was hurt.
“Someone could have been killed here,” said Barbara Johnston, president of the condominium association.
The city agreed to erect a natural barrier to prevent crashes after Johnston sought its assistance.
Keep Lakewood Beautiful, a community group dedicated to improving public areas, put in the grassy berm, installed a bench and planted trees and shrubs when the city reconfigured the intersection to improve safety several years ago.
The morning of the crash, Hostetter recalled she and her husband, Tom, were startled awake by a sound “like a bomb going off.”
They discovered the nose of the black sedan buried in their staircase. Dust and red and blue lights from emergency vehicles filled their home.
“It was like a scene out of a bad movie,” she said.
The crash happened after an officer pulled over a speeding car and then gave chase after the driver took off at high speed, police Lt. Chris Lawler said. The officer momentarily lost sight of the car after stopping for a red light that the car sped through.
The sedan had crashed through the condominium when the officer caught up. Police arrested the driver, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit for drivers, Lawler said.
Hostetter is living at a hotel until repairs are complete, likely in October. Her husband has returned to work as a commercial fisherman in Alaska. Damage to their home is estimated at more than $100,000.
Johnston said vehicles have crashed into the fence four or five times during the 10 years she has lived there. She attended the July 5 City Council meeting and asked for help in preventing crashes.
She compared the berm to a “takeoff for a plane.” In February, a motorcycle crashed into the fence, but the rider was able to walk away, she said.
To give the condominium residents “more peace of mind,” the city will place large boulders from a nearby construction project on the berm this fall, said Public Works Director Don Wickstrom.
Estimated cost, including labor, is about $2,000, he said.
Johnston supports the project, but Hostetter questions whether boulders will be enough and said the city needed to take a closer look at the berm.
Hostetter talked of the crash lightheartedly but said the experience was traumatic. She still jumps at loud noises, and sirens frighten her, she said.
An interior designer, she’s seen her condominium emptied of furnishings and boarded up as it awaits repairs.
“I don’t have a home right now, and that’s difficult for me,” she said.
Christian Hill: 253-274-7390
christian.hill@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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