A speeding Ford Fusion crashed into a home on Detroit’s west side on Sunday afternoon, striking a gas meter and sparking a fire that displaced a family but left the three people inside unhurt. Police said the crash happened on Harlow Street at Puritan just before 4 p.m.
Witnesses said the sedan was traveling about 60 to 70 mph before the driver lost control. Charles King said the car clipped two parked vehicles and then went straight into the house. Anthony Harris said he heard two booms that shook the block.
Police said the driver, a man in his mid-20s, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and was cited for reckless driving after sideswiping a vehicle on Puritan before the crash. The impact hit a gas meter and set off the fire, adding damage to a home that was already beyond repair for the family living there.
Janis Coleman said she is the primary caregiver for her son and her elderly father, who is battling cancer, and that she lost almost everything in the fire. She is now trying to find temporary housing. Coleman also said the house carried deep memories because she grew up there, and the loss hit hard when she saw the damage.
The driver’s father said a black pickup truck was chasing his son and struck his car before the crash, but police have said only that the driver was cited after the reckless-driving incident. That account leaves a sharp gap between what family members say happened on the street and what investigators have described so far.
Stephen Grady Muhammad said Detroit 300 2.0 has access to resources and will provide support to the family, and an online fundraising campaign has already been created to help them. For Coleman, the immediate question is not how the crash happened but how she keeps her family together after losing the home that sheltered them.
