Owners of Oxford Twp. home forced to vacate after car crashes into it

Police are continuing to investigate an Oxford Twp. crash that happened last week and involved a vehicle careening into a home.

The crash happened about 5:15 p.m. Dec. 30, 2021 at the intersection of Stillwell Beckett Road and Ohio 732, according to Oxford Twp. Police Sgt. Patrick Piccioni. The vehicle traveled quite a ways before hitting the house in the 3600 block of Oxford-Reily Road, he said.

There were no serious injuries reported at the scene, but the house sustained too much structural damage for it to be safe, according to Piccioni.

Terry and Terry Foley, a husband and wife with the same names, were sitting on the couch watching television when they heard a distinctive bang. Mrs. Foley said since moving in to the house about 18 months ago, three or four vehicles have ended up in their yard.

“We heard the big bang and I looked at my husband and I said ‘they have hit our house.’ He said ‘I know.” And we both jumped up and she was in the bedroom,” Foley said.

The couple found a black car inside their spare bedroom. The driver was able to crawl out of the back seat that was jutting out into the yard.

“There wasn’t a scratch on her. She said I am OK,” Mrs. Foley said. “Smoke alarm was going off and the smell from chemicals ... we had to run outside because we couldn’t breathe.”

The Foleys are now living with her sister while they wait for the structural damaged to be checked out.

They feel fortunate to be unharmed, but Mrs. Foley said it was “very scary.”

“We do get a lot of accidents at that intersection even though there is a stop sign for Stillwell Beckett Road and red blinking for Stillwell Beckett, and it is yellow flashing for 732,” Piccioni said.

He said a lot of times it is not a matter of drivers running the stop sign, but “they just don’t take that extra look back south on 732 and pull out and get hit or hit another vehicle.”

The speed limit is 55 mph on 732 and 55 mph on Stillwell Beckett.

The Foleys’ house is in the north west section of that intersection and the vehicle was traveling westbound on Stillwell Beckett. The driver went through a field, went across 732, into the ditch then into the house, according to police.

Piccioni said they are still investigating to determine if another vehicle was involved.

Mrs. Foley said neighbors indicate there has been a push to make the intersection safer for years.

“They said they have been trying to get something done at the intersection for years. The way the neighbors talk, they aren’t going to do anything until somebody gets killed,” she said.

Kathleen Fuller, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said improvements have been made to the intersection in recent years. The intersection falls under the jurisdiction of the state, not the Butler County Engineer’s Office.

“The intersection of SR 732 and Stillwell Beckett Road is not currently ranked on the Highway Safety Improvement Program as a high crash location, and we have no future plans or funding committed for any improvements at the intersection. However, in 2019, we undertook a project to demolish a barn as a measure to improve sight distance, and our safety team continues to monitor the location,” Fuller said.

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