Maureen Noble’s home has become an impromptu garage for random vehicles almost too many times to count.
The last time was July 8, and she’s still repairing the damage after a Ford came in one side and went out another. According to the Canadian Press, several jars of jam and pickles died violent and colorful deaths in that incident.
It’s getting tiring. She’d like to move, but the home that attracts vehicles like moths to a light bulb also repels nervous buyers.
Noble’s home sits near a sharp curve in the road in a small New Brunswick town. That’s the Canadian province where workers assembled the Bricklin SV-1 out of acrylic and cocaine back in the 1970s.
After the last collision, the retired homeowner (who’s lived in the home since 1971), told CP that the unexpected visitors have become commonplace.
“At least six since the early ’90s that have hit the house and done serious damage,” she said. “Three or four before that … You kind of lose track after awhile.”
Certain parts of the home remain unoccupied out of concern for her and her husband’s safety. The provincial government lowered the speed limit on that section of the road and added warning signs back in 2009 (after two nasty car-home collisions), but it hasn’t done much. Noble wants a guardrail installed, or rumble strips at the very least, but the government (as per tradition) seems to be driving with the parking brake engaged.
That leaves moving as a last resort, but Noble doesn’t think her chances of finding a buyer are very high. In order to pull up stakes, “we’d have to sell the house and do you think anybody’s going to buy the house?” she said.
[Image: The Car/Universal Pictures]
You won’t know if anyone will buy the house until you try and sell. Many out of town people won’t know the nature of the road anyway.
I’d have had a sign in the front yard after the first crash.
In America you have to disclose everything bad you know about the house.
One could argue that people running into the house with their car is not a defect in the house.
Sounds like a landscaping problem. A decorative but easy to repair pond to slow followed by a lovely boulder to stop.
You could just go straight to the decorative boulder, but you may have someone dead on your lawn. Rumble strips will do nothing. You’d think the road department would help her locate and move some rocks if she doesn’t mind them in her yard.
I was gonna say, “put in some bollards”…
(“Someone might sue you!”
“And we’ll countersue because they were driving recklessly and hit the bollards *in my damned lawn*.”)
D-Day beach obstacles. Call them sculpture, maybe get a grant.
Normandy is a feint, the real invasion comes from the Pas-de-Calais!
OK, Rundstedt.
Rather they die on my lawn than in my house. Big boulder. Preferably visible from the road, so it can act as a deterrent.
Foundation, rebar, concrete blocks with rebar tying them to the foundation.
That should at least make people obey the speed limit sign.
I remember in the rural area I grew up in there would generally be wooden posts and guardrails up on rural curves that flung you toward someones house (instead of a ditch or a field.)
My home Province…
They did get to meet with the Minister of Transportation, but I’ve not heard anything since.
Rural New Brunswick is a lot like rural Maine. If the moose and the potholes don’t get you, the sudden bend in the road will.
Lovely place to visit though. And work/invest. Just saying.
I remember a house outside of my old town that faced a road with two 90 degree turns on either side of the property. The road was two lanes with no shoulders and a 35 mph speed limit. Local hooners who thought that the laws of physics did not apply to them were constantly missing the first turn and tearing up the lawn and sometimes hitting the house. The homeowner tired of this and lined the front of his property with huge rocks (3 x 4 x 3 ft) spaced about 3 feet apart. That instantly ended the uninvited guests from entering his lawn.
Would something like this work for the homeowner in this story? I don’t think there is a rock shortage in the Canadian maritime provinces.
The region is much blessed with rocks and trees; both of which have the capacity to ruin the evening of anyone driving inappropriately.
“‘Cause we’ve got rocks and trees
And trees and rocks, and rocks and trees
And trees and rocks, and rocks and trees
And trees and rocks, and rocks and trees
And trees and rocks, and water.”
In the early sixties on a trip through the rural southwest, my father and uncle stopped at an isolated bar located on a road near the border of an Indian reservation. It was a Friday night so the place was packed, but for some odd reason, there was an empty booth in one corner of the bar. My dad and uncle sat down in the booth and when the waitress came over, she said, “You guys must not be from around here”. When asked what she meant, she said, “Well, a couple of times in the last few months, a couple of drunk Indians have come off the reservation on the road just outside and hit the bar right where you’re are sitting”.
My father and uncle got up and sat elsewhere.
Bollards, they need to grow some bollards.
She already has a husband.
I lived on a 90-degree turn in the road growing up, and it seemed like every few years somebody would run into the ditch, take out our mailbox, or sideswipe a car coming the other way on that corner.
If you’re looking to buy a house, just imagine if a car’s headlights could illuminate the house, and if the speed limit is over 25 MPH, don’t buy the house.
Yes, a speed limit sign is all that’s needed! Brilliant!
Yeah, what was I thinking? (I wasn’t).
Here’s a street view of a house that’s I’m surprised hasn’t been hit at least a couple of times.
https://goo.gl/XsNdaJ
This is on the way to a good friends house. At night, street lights are few and far between and as a bonus there are plenty of deer to distract your attention away from the road. Before you know it… blam!
You’re in someone’s living room.
My in-laws live on a straight stretch in a residential neighborhood and their home has by struck twice by passing cars. Hence, we keep a large, low-value, vehicle parked at the end of our driveway.
I bet if that large low-value vehicle was a retired cop car bought at auction it would slow folks down a lot.
Something like this oughta do it:
http://www.copcarsonline.com/2009_Ford_Crown%20Victoria_Largo_FL_263710215.veh
The road north from the ski area I used to work at had an off camber 90* turn at the bottom of the hill called Dodge corner. Before I met her my now wife went into the ditch on the way home. She said the Dodges were very nice, and had the local tow services number written next to the phone.
That movie… OMFG I watched that movie so many times when I was a kid! Whenever TV Guide said it was going to come on network TV I was there. Thinking back, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it in color. Off to bittorrent we go!
Perfect location for a drive-thru.
I read this and was wondering where the house pictures were….
I also immediately thought ” sounds like they need some large concrete filed Bollards .
Or maybe a deep ditch , something nasty to halt the vehicles .
When I lived in Newton , Mass in the 1960’s on Center Street , a bit down the hill was a left curve with a house behind it , once or twice a year some car would wind up in their yard , I only recall the house being hit twice though .
-Nate
http://www.belson.com/Concrete-Traffic-Barriers-and-Barricades
A cousin and I own a small retail rental property and over and over again, cars and/or pickups would be driven into the front of the store, usually on purpose to burglarize the store. Finally, and this was when my mother and uncle owned it, someone suggested the obvious solution. The ones we had put in back then are just big bright yellow concrete lined posts. A set of these would be a simple fix for the problem. Ours have done very well:
http://www.belson.com/Concrete-Traffic-Barriers-and-Barricades
Oh, the insurance company loved the idea and PAID for most of the cost of them!
I’d probably create a vehicle barrier out of landscaping. Some large raised flower beds would stop a car before it could hit the house. Well placed shrubs could slow a car down.
The local government should provide a guardrail. I know of several houses around Dallas (even in residential neighborhoods) where guardrails have been added.