House rammed for 4th time, Charlottetown woman concerned about safety

A Charlottetown family wants the city to make their street safer after a car crashed into their home this week for the fourth time in about 50 years.

Terri Jane Taylor and her husband returned from Newfoundland on Sunday to find car debris strewn around their rock garden and a hole about 1.5 square metres in the corner of their home on Kensington Road.

"Our youngest son, Chad, was house sitting and dog sitting for us so they were sitting in the living room right there, right at the corner, and he got up to go in the kitchen and the dog followed him, as dogs do, and he heard a big crash and he came out and witnessed a car in the side of the house," she said.

"There's plaster and drywall debris throughout the length of the house, as well, and decorations came down off the walls, it was quite a mess."

Charlottetown police responded, she said, and the male driver was picked up by family members. 

The large yellow house was built by Taylor's grandparents 90 years ago. It was hit for the first time in the 1960s, she said. The latest damage to the house could be serious.

Someone is really going to get hurt.— Terri Jane Taylor

"We're all very shaken and upset. The contractor just came so every room in the house has structural damage. We have to get a structural engineer out to see if the house is safe so we are just waiting on that."

Taylor said she has contacted the city several times over the years to express concern over the small stretch of Kensington Road between Park Street and Belmont Street, which can be very busy. 

"Someone is really going to get hurt," she said. "I, myself, have attended several accident scenes right here. Pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents. It's well known it's a dangerous corner."

Taylor said if the intersection isn't made safer, they may have to leave their family home. 

"There's a lot of history and family love and memories in this house that I would find it hard to give up but, I mean, if it is going to be this dangerous all the time, and you are scared to live in your own house, then we are going to have to consider it."

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