GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Jennifer Hoye has lived at the intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Spencer Street in the Creston Heights neighborhood of Grand Rapids for a few years.
She’s seen a number of crashes erupt at the intersection and Friday, March 3, her worst fear of a car hitting her home almost became a reality.
“Last Friday I was actually at work and before I was even out of work, ‘There was another crash out in front of your house. There’s another crash,’ so I looked on the thing and seen everything that’s going on,” explained Hoye, whose home surveillance video captured the crash. “Luckily, my kids were at school again, so I rushed over here, talked to the police, yelled at them a little bit. Yes, I know it’s 2-1-1 that we’re supposed to call, but I feel like the police at this point should be able to say something. They come here once or twice a month at this point.”
FOX 17 was out at the intersection in October 2022, reporting on a rollover collision that was so intense the vehicle crashed into Hoye’s fiancé’s parked car and pushed it 20 feet.
Since then, the crashes continue to happen, she said.
According to the Michigan Traffic Crash Facts website, there were 19 crashes on Lafayette Ave. between Quimby and Page streets, from Jan 2020 to Mar 2023.
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) March 10, 2023
Residents in the area are fed up.
So they’re collecting signatures to have the city do something about it. // @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/UCc4ah6Nm1
“Oh it’s often chaotic,” Jermaine Green, who often walks his young granddaughters to school, added. “I been staying here for like three years, over three years, and I’ve seen at least four or five head-on collisions. Actually, my mother in-law was involved in one herself. So, yeah it’s a very dangerous intersection.”
According to Michigan Traffic Crash Facts, there have been four reported crashes at Lafayette and Spencer, five at Lafayette and Quimby and a total of 19 between Quimby and Page Streets, which is a two-block span, just between January 2020 and March 2023.
“These accidents been happening,” Rebecca Stocking told FOX 17. "I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 21 years. I’ve seen a lot of accidents at this intersection and the one at Quimby and we really are just tired of it. I’m tired.”
People who live in the neighborhood say they’ve reached out to the city a number of times but nothing’s happened to make the intersection safer, so Hoye, Stocking, the Creston Neighborhood Association and other residents have started a petition.
“We have a petition to the city of Grand Rapids to do [a] traffic-calming for the neighborhood,” Stocking said. “What that entails is they would come, they would do an investigation basically into how heavy the traffic is on the street, the speed of the people going on the street and how many accidents have happened at the intersections. After they do the information, they will decide what’s the best plan proceeding from there.”
Stocking started collecting signatures Monday. By Wednesday, she had 70.
While FOX 17 was with the women at the intersection, one woman pulled over, jumped out of her vehicle and signed the petition.
By Friday afternoon, Stocking had 150 signatures.
“The city needs to do something about it,” Green, who signed the petition, said. “Basically, it’s too many. It’s not a coincidence that, you know, things keep happening at this same intersection. So, I don’t know maybe an island or something.”
FOX 17 reached out to the city for an interview. They declined, but did provide this statement via email:
“The City evaluated the intersection for additional stop signs and it does not meet the requirements in state and federal engineering standards. The City is taking steps to improve sightlines by restricting parking and trimming trees near the intersection as well as installing additional signage – both approaching and at the intersection – to reinforce driver awareness of the required East/West stop.”
When FOX 17 asked if the petition will have an impact, the city said it encourages community members to engage with public officials.
Residents hope their petition will pay off and something more is done. In the meantime, they hope all drivers will slow down on Lafayette.
“Stop, whether you’re supposed to or not,” Hoye said. “I mean that’s what I do at this point. I don’t just go through this. I go ‘Okay, any cars this way? Okay, next block. Any cars this way?’ We just all need to slow down a little bit.”
