A Washington Post reporter on Friday witnessed a Haitian driver make an illegal turn and crash into his mother's pickup truck in Springfield, Ohio, a small city struggling with a surge in immigrants from Caribbean countries unfamiliar with traffic laws.
Robin Stults, a 32-year-old mother of three, was approaching the intersection of West First Street and St. Paris Road with her 7-year-old daughter, who has autism, in the back seat when a black Hyundai sedan crashed into her truck around 2:30 p.m.
The Haitian driver was turning right from the left lane, where there was a go-straight-or-turn-left sign, and struck Stults' Ford F-350, which was turning right from the right lane, as he was attempting to pass, according to a Washington Post reporter.
The Haitian driver, who remained at the scene, told The Washington Post that he had a driver's license and was on his way to a job at Amazon, and that he had been living in the United States for three years.
“I was trying to turn and an accident happened, that's all. Why do you ask?” he said.
Fortunately, Stolz and her young daughter were unharmed.
“He tried to cut in and get over the truck behind me, so they honked at him and he tried to pass me around the corner,” she said.
“I saw him at the last moment and there's no way you can stop a truck that big,” she added.
The Post has reached out to the Springfield Police Department for more information.
Residents of Springfield, a city that has attracted national attention for false claims about its Haitian residents, say the main problem with tens of thousands of new Haitian immigrants is not unfounded rumors that they are kidnapping and eating pets, but reckless drivers.
Tensions have been rising between Haitians and local residents of Springfield since 2023, when a 36-year-old Haitian man driving without a U.S. license overturned a school bus, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark. Twenty others were hospitalized.
In December, Springfield grandmother Kathy Heaton was killed when a Haitian immigrant driving with an expired license struck her while she was picking up trash cans. But prosecutors did not charge the driver, 38-year-old Robenson Lewis.
Stolz said Haitian drivers need driving lessons.
“Haitians don't know our laws. They have accidents all the time. They need to learn traffic laws. They need education,” she told The Post.
“The children are at home 95 percent of the time because the roads are not safe with Haitian drivers,” the mother added.
Bryce Hatzer, 22, who witnessed Stults' accident, agreed that Haitian drivers are dangerous in Springfield.
“Every day I nearly run into a Haitian at this same intersection,” he said.
“Haitians don't know how to drive. That guy was in the wrong lane to make a right turn and that's why he hit us,” he said of Stults' accident.
The driving issue has attracted so much attention that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced this week that he would send $2.5 million in aid, as well as additional State Highway Patrol troopers to Springfield to help keep order on the roads.
In emotional testimony, Mandy Heaton, Cathy Heaton's daughter-in-law, urged the Springfield City Commission to support “Cathy's Law,” which would require all immigrants seeking an Ohio driver's license to undergo the same testing and restrictions required of Americans driving for the first time.
Within just a few years, an estimated 20,000 Haitian immigrants had flooded into the city, which has a population of just 60,000.
The city was thrust into the national spotlight following allegations that Haitian immigrants were killing local dogs, cats and chickens for food, allegations that were echoed by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and sparked widespread outrage.
Local authorities denied that anything like that happened.
Vance also claims Springfield is experiencing a “surge in infectious disease,” but Clark County Joint Health District Commissioner Chris Cook said: He told NBC News Friday, that's not exactly true.
National media attention led to several Springfield schools being closed for a second day in a row Friday because of bomb threats.
A city spokesperson told NBC News that several city commissioners and one city employee were targeted by bomb threats via email.
City officials said local police and FBI agents were working to “identify the source of these email threats.”
