Residents of Springfield, Ohio, are warning that the influx of about 20,000 Haitians has led to an increase in traffic accidents, some of which have been fatal.
Springfield drew national attention last year when an unlicensed Haitian immigrant crashed into a school bus on the first day of the school year in August 2023, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark. Twenty other students were also hospitalized. Locals say the tragic incident has shaken the community and left some children traumatized.
“It's not normal for a young child to have to attend a friend's funeral.”
The Blaze-News' Julio Rosas returned to Springfield and Tremont City this week to talk to locals about the impact the new arrivals are having on their communities.
David CookThe owner and operator of a plastic lumber store in Springfield, Ohio, told Rosas that the most significant impact has been an increase in traffic accidents, pointing to a video circulating online of a green Kia running a stop sign and slamming into the side of a police car.
Cook said Haitians are not being properly assimilated into the community, and some are avoiding the requirement to take driver's education before getting a license.
Cook told The Blaze News that his family was on the school bus on the day of the fatal crash.
“This is a middle-class American town and we've never seen anything like this before,” Cook told Rosas. “Really, this is traumatic. It's like PTSD.”
Cook explained that a child he knows told his mother that after the accident he didn't want to ride the school bus.
“The only way he'll get back on the bus is if she follows him to school,” said Cook, who noted some children have been having nightmares since the incident.
Tremont Mayor Tony Flood II told Rosas that the fatal bus accident affected several students he coached on the football team.
“It's PTSD,” Flood said.
“It's not normal for a young child to have to attend a friend's funeral,” Flood added.
In another similar incident in December, Cathy HeatonA Springfield grandmother was killed when she was outside collecting trash when she was struck by a Haitian driver with an expired license, after prosecutors declined to charge the driver.
Cook told Rosas, “I've heard people say, 'Oh, we brought in Haitians to rebuild Springfield.' I don't think it needed to be rebuilt.”
He explained that the Springfield area was a “powerful manufacturing center” in the 1960s and 1970s.
“We started to lose that base and things got tough, and I think that to a significant extent, people who lived here and lived through those circumstances believe that Springfield is still struggling,” Cook told Rosas.
“Well, who doesn't like cheap labor? But in terms of the potential as a city and what you can do here, I've traveled the country. I've been to 49 states. I've been to different countries,” he continued. “This is the best in America,” Cook declared. “I think the quality of life here is better than anywhere.”
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