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Car crashes into house in Grand Haven

“All I heard is a big bang, that’s it.”
Credit: Tribune photo/Matt DeYoung
Todd Klein, right, speaks with Rod Barnaby after witnessing a Ford Escape crash into a home along Beacon Boulevard on Tuesday evening, June 11, 2019.

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — (Grand Haven Tribune)Todd Klein was on his front porch Tuesday evening when the sound of a car rapidly accelerating on Beacon Boulevard caught his attention.

He turned around in time to see a Ford Escape take out a pair of light poles, jump across the median and crash into a home on the east side of the highway.

“I looked over and saw the car hit the second pole and throw it into the intersection,” Klein said. “It ran across the curb here and I watched it run right into the house. It never slowed down.”

Credit: Tribune photo/Matt DeYoung
A light pole lies on the ground along Beacon Boulevard in Grand Haven on Tuesday, June 11, 2019.

Klein said the car was going fast when it hit the house on the east side of Beacon Boulevard, just south of Grant Avenue.

“Sixty (mph) is an understatement,” he said.

Homeowner Renee LaFrance was in the back of her house when she heard a tremendous crash. She was not injured, and said it was just her two cats in the home at the time.

“All I heard is a big bang, that’s it,” she said. “I came out and I saw the top of the car, but I didn’t come out here, because I didn’t want to look and see if there was someone in there.”

The driver and a passenger were sitting outside the vehicle when police arrived. One of the occupants, a male, spoke to police while a female occupant was taken into a waiting ambulance for medical treatment.

Rod Barnaby watched the incident from his motorcycle while riding north on Beacon. He said it’s incredible no other vehicles were hit.

“I seen her veer to the left, got the street light out and she just kept going, no brakes or nothing,” Barnaby said. “I looked behind me in the mirror — she just come across all the traffic and everything, and then the big bang at the house. No slowing down or nothing — everybody stopped for her.”

“They missed this car in the intersection by inches,” Klein added.

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