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For oft-hit wall, is third time the charm?
By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer
LUTZ -- Denise Ahles admits she was warned. The first time she ever noticed the handsome house at the corner of Hanna Road and Hounds Hollow Court, a car-size hole in the backyard brick wall was what caught her eye. Then Mrs. Ahles realized the house was for sale. She and her husband, Kevin, bought it with the understanding that the seller would patch up the wall. "I never slept in full clothes until I moved into that house," she said. "If I'm going to be flying out this door, I want to be dressed." It happened again this month. Around 2:25 a.m. on Jan. 9, 22-year-old Matthew Gustman missed a stop sign at Vandervort Road, which lines up with the Ahleses' rear property line. Gustman's 2003 silver Infiniti blasted through the brick wall, continued across the Ahleses' back yard and leveled much of a concrete block wall on the opposite property line. A cross bar across the top of the second wall trapped the Infiniti there. Mrs. Ahles said a dazed Gustman rang her doorbell at 2:30 a.m. and said he had just had an accident. The Ahleses quickly looked out back. "He said, 'I think I hit a wall,' " said Mrs. Ahles, 41. "I said, 'Honey, you hit two walls.' " Gustman, from Chadron, Neb., was visiting relatives here. He was charged with careless driving. "He basically said he was unfamiliar with the neighborhood and was speeding, going too fast for conditions, and just missed the stop sign," said Rod Reder, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman. "Apparently, that's what several people do." Mrs. Ahles said neighbors told her it was the third smashing of her wall. The second, three years ago, was a hit and run, she said. In addition to the stop sign at Vandervort's intersection with Hanna, a driver there faces a row of yellow reflecting signs. Each of the vehicles crashing through the wall has veered just to the right of the reflectors. "They maybe need some little speed bumps up there to make the people aware that there's a stop sign coming up, or something like that," Reder said. Last week, the Times contacted the county's public works department to ask whether they were considering changes. But by early this week, no traffic investigator had visited the intersection, said investigator Ralph Cardoso. Public Works Director Bernardo Garcia, told about the reflectors, said they probably were an earlier response to the problem. He said other devices that can be used are reflective striping, brighter streetlights and a flashing yellow light warning of the stop ahead. "We'll talk to the lady there and see what her thoughts are," Garcia said. Several days later, Mrs. Ahles said she had heard nothing. She said she had called the county three years ago about the accident then, and no changes were made. "Nobody's called me or talked to me," she said Tuesday. "When I find somebody dead in my back yard, maybe somebody'll do something." -- Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com .
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From the Times |
