Car hits Raleigh house; driver flees

A driver fled the scene of an accident early this morning after the driver's car hit a house in Raleigh.

According to a police report, a 2003 Volkswagen was traveling east on Valley Stream Drive when the driver lost control of the car. Police estimate the car was going 70 mph in a 35 mph speed zone.

The driver overcorrected, and the car struck the right curb, then hit a fire hydrant and some trees.

The car came to rest against the front of the house at 4611 Centerbrook Circle.

After the collision, which occurred at 2:30 a.m., the driver fled the scene, police said.

Robin Hudson, who lives in the house that is owned by her mother, said the car hit her 7-year-old daughter's room. Luckily, the girl was sleeping with her mother in the back of the house.

Hudson said she did not hear the car hit the house. The police knocked on her door at 2:45 a.m. to tell her about the accident.

"I was still groggy and didn't see the car next to the door," she said.

She said the house does not appear to be damaged. She thinks the car's impact was slowed by the fire hydrant.

"Thank God for the fire hydrant," she said, adding workers were out there fixing it around 11 a.m.

She said the way the house is situated on the street, she's long worried about cars running off the road and hitting it.

"There needs to be a guardrail there," she said.

She may petition the city to put one in after this incident, she said.

She said the homeowners' association just planted new bushes in front of the house, and now those bushes are all torn out.

"I'm just glad we're OK," she said.

Police have established that the owner of the car is Frank Jenkins Jr. of Greensboro. But Jim Sughrue, a police spokesman, said police have not determined whether he was the driver.

Attempts to reach Jenkins have been unsuccessful, Sughrue said.

The wreck caused about $15,000 in damage, according to the police report.