'Rehab Addict' Birmingham house project damaged after car crash

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (WJBK) - A house undergoing renovations by TV home improvement guru Nicole Curtis is going to need even more work. A speeding driver lost control and crashed into two houses in Birmingham early this morning.

In his zeal to get away from a cop, a driver took on a boulder and two houses. Neighbors say it's not the first time something like this has happened.

It is a wonder no one was seriously hurt after a driver slammed into this house in Birmingham before striking the house next  door Friday morning

"(It sounded) just like a real large boom," said neighbor Brian Martin. "It felt like an explosion."

It happened on 14 Mile Road at the Greenfield intersection in Birmingham around 12:45.

"My whole yard was filled with light from spotlights from the fire trucks and living room filled with red and blue lights flashing," said neighbor Linda Bailey.

It all began in Beverly Hills where police say the driver ran a red light at 13 Mile and Greenfield and refused to stop when an officer tried to pull him over. He then raced up Greenfield before a boulder stopped him.

"The car bounced off the boulder and became airborne," Martin said. "Then bounced off the house over here to your right and went back to the house over there."

Curtis, from the hit show 'Rehab Addict' said that the best news of all, was the no one was hurt. The car hit the rock and ping ponged between the house she is working on and the neighbor's next door.

The woman renting the house next door would not talk with FOX 2 on camera while HGTV's Curtis continues to rehab the house next door.

"The good news is I was contemplating, going back and forth whether we're keeping this large aluminum siding on this house," she said. "Because it was in really good shape and we already painted it - or if I was going to tear it off because it's really killing me because it's not original to the house.

"Now there is so much damage to the exterior and I was pulling it away and now there is cedar shakes. So I am so ecstatic right now to find original cedar shakes from 1928. Now this house is going to pop out and this is exactly what I wanted to do."

The driver was taken to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. And while he alone caused this crash, neighbors say troublesome traffic at the intersection has seemingly made accidents here the norm.

"You can see that with the lights, if people aren't paying attention bad things can happen," said neighbor Tom Lewry.

That, coupled with the work of speeding drivers, drunk drivers and dumb drivers, can make for chaotic scenes.

"I have personally written Birmingham police and said you need to patrol this because at nighttime when it's 9, 10 at night they treat this like a freeway," said Bailey.

"I think as the weather gets warmer people get a little feisty," said neighbor Susan Hwang.

The driver that hit these houses was taken to the hospital for precautionary measure it is unclear if alcohol played a role in the crash. Police say the case is open and they're seeking charges.