Most vehicles that maneuver the curves in front of Atlas native Harold Anderson’s home pass by without incident.
However, the handful of motorists that have stopped by unexpectedly over the years have him concerned.
Anderson estimates that more 30 drivers have missed the corner of Gale and Perry roads just west of the Atlas Mill Pond and ended up in his front yard’crashing through a Genesee County Road Commission guardrail, often hitting a Consumer’s Energy natural gas pressure regulator.
Anderson grew up in the two story home in the 8000 block of Perry Road purchased by his parents in 1942, and over the past 60 years recalls numerous accidents as motorists navigate the curves.
‘When I was about 8-years-old, a car drove though the guardrail and landed about 15 feet from me in the front yard,? said Anderson. ‘The real sad thing about the drivers is that many are unaware if they hit a guardrail or a person’they are disoriented and many times have been drinking.?
Anderson said that very seldom do motorists come to his door if they crash’rather, they attempt to get back on the road.
‘I would guess 99 percent of the drivers are drunk, or at least have been drinking when they hit the rail,? he said. ‘Often other motorists are trying to be ‘Good Samaritans,? and will stop and push cars back onto the road after they missed the curve. My thoughts are, drunks don’t need to be back on the road, they may hit someone else. Also, if a police report is made that driver should be responsible for buying a new guardrail. Why should taxpayers be responsible for that??
While many of the accidents have been minor with vehicles just scraping the guardrail’some have been rather humorous.
Anderson recalled that back in the 1950s, two-carloads of raccoon hunters driving a 1946 Ford and a 1952 Buick on Perry Road missed the curve and piled up in his front yard.
‘The hunters were OK, but one of the hunters opened the trunk lid and out jumped coon dogs’a bunch of them,? he said. ‘The dogs took off, and for the next couple weeks neighbors were getting chased around by hounds.?
Another time in the 1950s, Anderson said, Dr. Reed, from the old Wheelock Hospital in Goodrich, let a man and his pregnant wife who was about to give birth drive his Cadillac to Flint.
‘The man was driving and hit the guardrail while she was in labor. I’m not sure if they made it to the hospital in time to have that baby,? laughed Anderson.
The only fatality was allegedly prior to the Andersons owning the house in the late 1930s? a woman died in their home after crashing at the intersection.
‘The story goes, they carried her to the front porch and that’s where she expired.?
Atlas Township resident and Genesee County Undersheriff James Gage said the intersection in Atlas at Perry and Gales road is an engineering issue.
‘All of a sudden motorists are on curve,? he said.
‘Plus the speed limit is 55 mph’you just don’t have time to brake. That section of Perry Road is not part of the main arteries’like M-15. Most locals will know that part of the road and slow down. Most of our drunk drivers are arrested on M-15.?