A seemingly peaceful Civic Day night was shaken up for Josie Tudisco-Maximino and her husband when a pickup truck crashed through their house that backs onto the Franklin Boulevard and Myers Road roundabout.
"The sound was horrendous," she said, recalling the Monday night incident. "I didn't know what the heck was going on. I called my husband immediately to take a look. I called 9-1-1. I was sure (the driver) was dead because all the airbags were deployed. Then my husband saw movement and we saw he was out of the truck."
The driver, said Tudisco-Maximino, had apparently been driving at a high speed and had crashed through both the chain-link and wooden fence landing in the well-kept backyard.
"The fence was shrapnel on the lawn and poles from the chain-link fence and he went through all of it," she said. "He came around too quickly on the roundabout and got airborne and went through our fence. I found his licence plate embedded in the chain-link fence."
And this isn't the first time a car coming off the roundabout has crashed into someone's backyard.
Last year, on Oct. 10 to be exact, the same happened to Tudisco-Maximino's neighbour, Peter Paulie.
"It was a lot of hassle," said the 86-year-old, adding he wasn't at home at the time of the incident. "It was pretty bad. The fencing was crushed through. A big flower bed that I had there was all mangled and the car ended up around my cherry tree."
The thought that her friend could have been working on the flower bed as the car came through, scares Kitty Beckett, who lives a couple doors up.
"If Peter had been working on the flower bed, he would have been dead," she said.
Tudisco-Maximino shudders at the thought that she or someone she loves could have been in the backyard when the crash happened.
"I have five grandchildren and we always go into the backyard," she said, "And it scares the heck out of me that that could have been the day this car could have come through."
She reached out to her ward councillor, Scott Hamilton, who visited the scene and talked to the residents on Stonyburn Crescent.
"I have heard from a large contingent of residents, all up and down Franklin Boulevard," he said talking to CambridgeToday. "Anywhere near Franklin has expressed concerns around excessive speed and excessive noise at the McQueen Shaver and Franklin and Myers Road."
Hamilton said he's heard frequent stories from people in the area about being awakened in the middle of the night by noise from air brakes, blaring music (coming from cars), or from cars screeching to go around the roundabout without slowing down.
Tudisco-Maximino, who has lived in the area for more than three decades said that's become routine now. She can hear noises from the modified mufflers and cars speeding around the roundabout, just going round and round the circle.
Beckett's house is a bit further down, but she said she can hear the trucks and the screeching cars, too.
Whether the problem is speed or too much traffic, she added, something needs to be done.
"Whatever it is, I feel these people, taxpayers, deserve to be protected," said Beckett. "It's not protecting the people that live in the houses back there."
Her suggestion is a cement wall along Franklin Boulevard and Myers Road.
Tudisco-Maximino agreed and added maybe speed bumps would help slow people down.
"I don't think residents should have to pay for changes that are negatively affecting their lives," said Hamilton. "They're changes we all have to go through in a growing city, but they shouldn't be obtrusive or offensive or have cars rolling through your backyard. That's not the sign of a growing city, it's the sign of a problem."
Karl Kiefer, one of the three Cambridge representatives on regional council, said he had had discussions with Hamilton about the situation.
"I instructed regional staff to look into some of the complaints," said Kiefer. "I believe at some point there is a meeting being set up about it.
"Whenever there's a safety issue, it becomes a priority to look at," he added. "And staff are looking at it."
As for what can be done, Kiefer said, he was waiting to hear back from staff about options.
"My heart goes out to the residents and I hopefully we can mitigate things," he said.
Efforts to reach the region for staff comment were not returned before publication time.
