Second crash in less than a year expands hole in Grosse Pointe Farms post office

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — The gaping hole in the side of the Grosse Pointe Farms branch of the U.S. Postal Service has gotten bigger.

After a speeding motorist drove into the building the morning of July 9, 2022 — sending bricks and debris flying — a second speeder added to the damage after crashing into the same spot at 2:24 a.m. March 23.

The driver — a 44-year-old Detroit man — emerged from the wreckage with “not a scratch” on him, Farms Deputy Public Safety Director Andrew Rogers said. Police who responded to the crash said the driver walked out the back of the post office and declined medical attention.

“We’re glad to see he wasn’t hurt,” Rogers said.

As was the case last summer, the driver was headed eastbound on Warren Avenue toward the spot where Warren ends at Mack Avenue. Instead of turning onto Mack, the driver apparently went straight, which put him on a collision course with the building.

“Fortunately, no one was (in or around the building), because they would have been killed,” Rogers said of the impact from the driver’s GMC Safari.

Rogers said the crash — which, like the one last year, saw the vehicle plowing into the postal supervisor’s office — caused a gas leak in the building. He said officers quickly shut off the gas.

“Once again, we got lucky — (there were) no explosions and no one got hurt,” Rogers said.

This might be one of the rare times a delay in getting construction done was a positive. Rogers said the building still hadn’t been fixed from last summer’s crash, with the hole in the side only covered by plywood. He said contractors had been slated to start repairs on the building during the last week in March.

“They probably saved a little money because they don’t have to (rebuild) twice,” Rogers said.

On the other hand, contractors now have additional work, thanks to the second crash in less than a year.

The March 23 driver “made a bigger hole and he knocked out a lot more bricks,” Rogers said.

He also got deeper inside the building. That’s likely due to the fact that there were fewer obstacles to slow down or stop the vehicle’s progress, given the loss last year of the building’s brick wall and flagpole.

While the driver in the July crash was said to be suffering from a medical emergency, the March 23 driver was drunk, police said. According to a police report, the driver told officers, “I had a little bit” to drink, and failed field sobriety tests, including a preliminary breath test that showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.18% — more than twice the legal limit.

Because of its location adjacent to the end of Warren Avenue, the postal building has been the site of many accidents over the years. Rogers, who grew up in the Farms, can recall one from when he was an 8-year-old riding his bike in the area.