Man wants city's help after southeast Columbus home hit by cars three times

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A Columbus man said he’s out of options after cars have crashed into his house on three separate occasions.

Lawrence Kent has owned his home on Woodcrest Road since the late 1980s. Situated in the Pine Hills neighborhood near the junction of Interstates 270 and 70 on the city's southeast side, Kent is urging the city to take action to manage traffic on his street.

All the while, Kent lives in a home that sits in near-complete ruin.

“Everything’s just destroyed in this house,” he said, standing on his front lawn with a gaping hole in his home behind him.

That damage was done by an SUV in June of 2022.

Another hole on the side of Kent's house was also made by a vehicle. According to Kent, that happened about nine years ago.

At the time of that crash nine years ago, Kent had homeowner’s insurance. He said he filed a claim and waited. When his contract with the insurance company ended, his provider told him they would not be renewing his policy.

“The insurance company dropped me because (of) all the accidents out here,” he said.

Kent described a third accident in which a car hit his home. That was "about 30 years ago," he said. He was working as a contractor at the time and was able to repair the damage himself. Now in his 60s, his health has since declined.

"My knees are so bad, I'm a diabetic and that takes a toll on me," he said. "I don’t know what to do. I’m just stuck.”

Kent is now left living in a home with two holes, no insurance, and a repair bill for more than three times the $49,000 he originally paid for the house.

"It's going to cost right around $170,000 or more," Kent said. "I don't have that kind of money, you know? I'm barely making it right now."

Kent said the home has no hot water because the gas line was damaged in one of the crashes. All three bedrooms are unusable, he said, so he and his fiancé sleep in the living room, take cold showers and warm themselves with portable electric heaters during the winter.

In the meantime, cars continue to whiz by.

“In the daytime, you hear the squealing tires,” Kent said. “Nighttime, 3:00 -4:00  in the morning, you hear the squealing tires.”

NBC4 returned to Woodcrest Road on a sunny weekday with a radar gun and detected a few cars going above 50 miles per hour in the 35-mile-per-hour zone.

According to records kept by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, there have been 34 crashes on Kent’s block in the past five years. As many as 13 of those involved injuries; and in nine of them, at least one car left the road, taking out utility poles, a fire hydrant, street signs, a fence and the front of Kent’s house.

Columbus's 311 records show the city replaced two street signs on Woodcrest in September after Kent reported that a car had knocked them down. Kent filed a separate request in September complaining of speeding on the street. Records do not show a follow-up in response to that report.

In response to inquiries from NBC4, the Columbus Department of Public Works said its Traffic Management team is now studying the 1900 block of Woodcrest Road, where Kent lives.

"Determining what the prevalent issues are will help us determine if there are potential street engineering solutions we can implement to reduce crashes and speeding," said Debbie Briner, a spokesperson for the department. "To address speeding concerns in the meantime, residents should ask (Columbus Police) for additional enforcement of the posted speed limit."

The Columbus Division of Police has not responded to two emails asking about speed limit enforcement on Woodcrest.

"The Department of Public Service is working to prioritize safety for all who travel along Columbus streets,” Briner said. “Our efforts with Vision Zero Columbus are focused on pursuing actions to slow vehicle speeds and ultimately end crash deaths and life-altering injuries. Drivers should obey the speed limit, not drive distracted, impaired or recklessly, and be aware of their surroundings. These behaviors protect and save lives."

A heat map on the Vision Zero Columbus website highlights Woodcrest Road in orange, the second-highest of four levels on the program's "High Injury Network" scale.