Student driver crashes into house
Driving lesson ends in destruction of garage, kitchen in Waukesha
By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ and MELISSA WITTIG
denriquez@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 31, 2005
A Waukesha couple's plans for a quiet summer came crashing down Tuesday when a student driver plowed a sport utility vehicle through their home, taking out its attached garage and most of its kitchen.
"This is kind of devastating to see your garage and kitchen knocked down," homeowner Greg Hafeman said after seeing his gas stove, cabinets and countertops scattered across his backyard. "We're just glad nobody was injured."
Terry Hafeman, his wife, said the couple would remain in their home of 23 years after it is repaired.
"It looks like it'll be a lot of phone calls and paperwork," she said as an insurance adjuster arrived to survey the wreckage. "It was our first home, and I hope it will be our only home."
The crash at the home in the 1900 block of Empire Drive on Waukesha's east side happened shortly before 3 p.m. while the Hafemans were at work.
Neither Najiba Karimi, the 20-year-old driver, nor Robert Holt, the 60-year-old passenger who was teaching Karimi to drive, were injured. Both live in Waukesha.
Karimi is from Afghanistan. Holt said he sponsored Karimi's move to Waukesha through his church. Holt declined to discuss the incident further until the accident report is released by police within the next few days.
Wally Olinski, 75, witnessed the accident while loading his car in the driveway of his nearby home.
Olinski said he saw the Mercury sport utility vehicle driving slowly down the hill on Empire Drive, where it pulled over to practice parallel parking. He said the driver then "floored it," and the vehicle veered to the right and jumped the curb.
It sped up the hill of a neighboring home before plowing into the attached garage of the Hafemans' home. The vehicle rumbled through the kitchen, burst onto the patio and headed into a neighbor's yard.
The vehicle traveled about 50 yards before stopping against the rear of Anna Torres' home in the 1900 block of Cardinal Drive.
Gian Torres, her son, said he was watching television when he "heard a boom" at the back of his home. Torres said he found a man and young woman getting out of the vehicle, which suffered damage to its front end and windshield. City of Waukesha Fire Marshal Brian Charlesworth said responding firefighters were concerned about a gas leak, but the utilities were quickly turned off.
Firefighters used wooden beams to shore up the rear of the home to prevent it from collapsing.
Waukesha police Sgt. Jeff Fulwiler said the department's accident division will review the incident today to determine whether any traffic tickets would be issued.
The Waukesha Fire Department declared the home uninhabitable until repairs are made.
"I guess we'll be eating a lot of restaurant food, but that's OK," Terry Hafeman said.
The BikeForums Team
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just a spammer, we get them from time to time
I edited your response to remove the link as
well as delete the trolls posts (banned him too).
Marty
suntreader
Skank, what does it help explain?
skanking biker
The idiocy of some motorists.
Helmet Head
It's important to remember that encountering this level of incompetence is very remote. If you assumed most or even many drivers are this incompetent, then it would be illogical to leave your home. Actually, even staying home wouldn't protect you from this level of incompetence.
skanking biker
No i didnt asume anything---just goes to show you that if this girl did this now--imagine what will happen when she does get her license--she'll prob be one of those makup doing cellphoen talking suv driving idiots about which most people here are fond of ranting.
genec
It's important to remember that encountering this level of incompetence is very remote. If you assumed most or even many drivers are this incompetent, then it would be illogical to leave your home. Actually, even staying home wouldn't protect you from this level of incompetence.
Yeah in this case, it would not have paid to leave home. :D
But regarding "most or even many;" all it takes is ONE!
Most drivers just do the right thing and go along their way... but it is the "odd ducks" that do things totally unpredictable... those are the ones that can cause grief.
Saw two "odd ducks" today... there was no way you could have predicted their movement. One was in a line of left turning cars... and suddenly broke away and went straight... no signal, no other indication, until they suddenly bore off.
The other was at a left only light. Waited through the light cycle. Light turned green, he went straight too.
I was well behind these... no problem for me... although that second guy almost clipped someone else.
Then there was the guy that did not even hesitate at the right on red... good thing I wasn't quite to that intersection yet. This guy was predictable... many people don't actually stop at right on red... and few look for anything but cars... very predictable.
suntreader
The idiocy of some motorists.
C'mon, Skank, give her a break. If you read carefully, you'll see that she's a young woman from Afghanistan. That means she just got out from under horrific oppression of the Taliban. Young women weren't allowed to leave their homes. go to school... or even read! A woman learning to drive would have literally been a capital offense. I'm sure she did not intend to drive into that house, nor is she likely to be very happy about it.
skanking biker
no---i never said she intended it---but really, how hard is it to hit the brakes--esp after going up the curb...i mean even just letting off of the gas. She didnt just run INTO a house--she went THROUGH a house and right up against another one
skanking biker
kinda like that old dude who ran over 50 people at a supermarket---
chrisgerne
i think what he was trying to point out was that women are bad drivers :P
Helmet Head
Most drivers just do the right thing and go along their way... but it is the "odd ducks" that do things totally unpredictable... those are the ones that can cause grief.
Saw two "odd ducks" today... there was no way you could have predicted their movement. One was in a line of left turning cars... and suddenly broke away and went straight... no signal, no other indication, until they suddenly bore off.
The other was at a left only light. Waited through the light cycle. Light turned green, he went straight too.
I was well behind these... no problem for me... although that second guy almost clipped someone else.
Then there was the guy that did not even hesitate at the right on red... good thing I wasn't quite to that intersection yet. This guy was predictable... many people don't actually stop at right on red... and few look for anything but cars... very predictable.
That's the difference between you and me. Someone realizing they're in the wrong lane and, say, going straight from a left only lane, or someone rolling through a right on red, wouldn't even cause my eyebrows to move... Nothing abnormal or unexpected in the behavior of these "ducks" as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't tell you if you I saw it happen ten, five,two, one or zero times in the last day, week or whatever, because I wouldn't even take notice if I did see it. It's no more significant or unusual to me than someone going 5 mph over the speed limit, and poses about as much of a potential hazard to me: nil.
I don't take notice of such acts because my traffic cycling precludes me from being affected by them. I don't depend on everyone in the left-only lane to actually turn left. I don't assume everyone will stop at every red light. So when they don't, it doesn't matter to me.
H23
... It's no more significant or unusual to me than someone going 5 mph over the speed limit, and poses about as much of a potential hazard to me: nil.
I don't take notice of such acts because my traffic cycling precludes me from being affected by them. I don't depend on everyone in the left-only lane to actually turn left. I don't assume everyone will stop at every red light. So when they don't, it doesn't matter to me.
I don't believe that anyone's cycling technique protects them from the unexpected. In the same way that those actions you describe can be the cause of a car-car accident, they can also be the cause of a car-bike accident.
To think otherwise, is to be living in a dream world.
lilHinault
Accidents of this type - cars crashing into houses and stores - are very common. Seemed like one a week in SoCal, and often people get injured. I saw one in the making in Westchester in Los Angeles, what protected the house was one of those weird setups where the house was on its own little hill and the lawn a hill, and a sturdy-*** fence. It's also happened in this apartment building I'm in now, rumor is the car ended up on top of someone sleeping.
scarry
Accidents of this type - cars crashing into houses and stores - are very common. Seemed like one a week in SoCal, and often people get injured. I saw one in the making in Westchester in Los Angeles, what protected the house was one of those weird setups where the house was on its own little hill and the lawn a hill, and a sturdy-*** fence. It's also happened in this apartment building I'm in now, rumor is the car ended up on top of someone sleeping.
There was one in San Jose last weekend were a student driver drove into a laundramat, injuring a woman and her infant.
randya
Someone drove their car through my Aunt and Uncle's fireplace and living room wall in Rohnert Park, CA about 5 or 10 years ago.
genec
That's the difference between you and me. Someone realizing they're in the wrong lane and, say, going straight from a left only lane, or someone rolling through a right on red, wouldn't even cause my eyebrows to move... Nothing abnormal or unexpected in the behavior of these "ducks" as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't tell you if you I saw it happen ten, five,two, one or zero times in the last day, week or whatever, because I wouldn't even take notice if I did see it. It's no more significant or unusual to me than someone going 5 mph over the speed limit, and poses about as much of a potential hazard to me: nil.
I don't take notice of such acts because my traffic cycling precludes me from being affected by them. I don't depend on everyone in the left-only lane to actually turn left. I don't assume everyone will stop at every red light. So when they don't, it doesn't matter to me.
But you always tout predictability... so how does that jive with your lack of dependence on said predictability?
Nicodemus
Sounds like she just panicked and went mental. The blame lies with the passenger/instructor. That's why it's best to leave driving instruction to professionals.
I once saw someone trying to park or something. Her husband was standing on the pavement watching her. She got it into reverse and floored it, hit the car behind her and panicked and just hammered her foot down until the car behind her hit the car behind that, and then the car behind that, before she got her foot off the accelerator. All the while her husband's standing on the sidewalk freaking out.
People who are so inexperienced or timid that they could really panic and do damage like that should always be under appropriate supervision. It's another reason why a lot of driver school cars have extra brake pedals in the passenger seat - just for panicky dolts like this.
I get pissed off with amateur driving instructors. It's a huge fast-moving heavy lump of metal, take it seriously!
lilHinault
Let's see, if I'm up at the hardware store and take an axe and start choppin' on people, or I take a hammer and start konking heads in, or if I'm at a restaurant or housewares store where there are knives and I randomly grab one and start stabbing and carving on people, I'd go into the prison/looney bin for the rest of my life - in fact justice would be best served if I got killed at the scene. This is obvious and well understood.
But if I'm in a car or truck, call on a cellfone and slurp on a coffee and run over 6 people at a bus stop, plow over a family in a parking lot, or ram a house taking on the baby's nursery first, Oh, that's OK.
It's not like people in cars intend to do these things, it's just very easy to do them in the blink of an eye. Even the NRA would hate to this kind of accident rate and hair-trigger mayhem with guns, and they have elaborate and interlocking safety rules. If OSHA were in charge of driving rules they'd be appalled by this rate of accidents too. Consider a car what it is, "a huge fast-moving lump of metal", a large and dangerous machine, and the stuff that goes on and how lightly it's taken is appalling.
chrisgerne
"The blame lies with the passenger/instructor. "
a girl slams on the gas and shoots a car through a house, and its the person in the passengers seat's fault?
hahahahahahaha.
Nicodemus
"The blame lies with the passenger/instructor. "
a girl slams on the gas and shoots a car through a house, and its the person in the passengers seat's fault?
hahahahahahaha.
A student slams on the gas and shoots a car through a house, and it's the unqualified driving instructor in the passenger seat's fault.
That does not mean that she shouldn't seriously reconsider whether being behind the wheel is a good future for her, but in this case ultimately the blame lies with the teacher.
khuon
In aviation, there's this concept of pilot-in-command (PIC). A student pilot cannot actually log time as PIC. Why? Because technically, they are not the PIC. The instructor-pilot is PIC for the duration of the flight and assumes responsibility for safety-of-flight and a safe training environment. That means that if the student screws up, the instructor takes the blame. The instructor is never supposed to allow the student to be able to put the aircraft and its occupants into a situation where safety-of-flight can be compromised. I don't know for certain if this concept exists in automotive training but I think something similar probably does and under those terms, the instructor must assume blame for what happened.