RICHMOND, (WRIC) – Drivers frequently exceed the speed limit on Monument Avenue, when a driver — who police say was asleep — crashed into Steve and Christine Milefsky’s front yard at 10 a.m. Sunday morning, that was their initial reaction.
“He had to have a lot of speed behind him to hit that hard. This is a 35 mile an hour zone here,” said Milefsky.
The couple wasn’t home on the 4800 block of Monument Ave when the incident happened, but after getting a call from their next door neighbor, they rushed home.
“Sure enough, there was a car being dragged out by a tow truck,” said Milefsky.
The Richmond Police Department told the homeowners the driver fell asleep at the wheel, swerved off Monument Avenue, struck a tree and brick wall, smashed into their food pantry and crashed into their front yard. He was not injured, but police gave him several tickets.
Milefsky said he’s not worried about the yard, he’s more thankful no bystanders were caught in the mess.
“I don’t like it. But what I don’t like is that on Sunday mornings, there were lots of runners out here. You know, there’s people walking and it was quite a beautiful day.”
The Milefsky’s, who have lived in the neighborhood for 11 years, say speeding on Monument Avenue has been recurring and drivers don’t always stop at the stop signs, putting cyclists and pedestrians at risk.
“People are going 55, 45 miles an hour coming down this way,” said Milefsky. “I ride my bike here and that’s what worries me more than anything. People are going 45 miles an hour down here and there’s not enough room to really ride comfortably.”
Milefsky told 8News there was another accident in front of their house several weeks ago. A speeding car crashed into a tree, knocking it down with the car flipped over on it’s side.
“I would love to see the police start writing tickets again and enforcing traffic laws because it’s something that affects everybody’s daily safety. It doesn’t matter whether you’re out here, out in Henrico or out in Goochland. It affects everybody,” said Milefsky.
