Six drivers have crashed onto his property. Now he wants solutions.

Carlo Bernarte won’t let his children go in the living room anymore. He worries a car might crash through the walls of the family’s northeast Raleigh home.

Six vehicles have plowed into Bernarte’s front yard since the family moved into their house on Fawn Glen Drive off of North New Hope Road in 2004. Some ended up in the living room, and others sent debris flying through the windows of the home.

No one inside the house has been injured, but Bernarte, 45, is scared for the safety of his wife and three children.

“You could be lucky once, twice, three times,” Bernarte said, “but you cannot gamble. You can’t always be lucky.”

Bernarte has been lobbying the city of Raleigh and the state Department of Transportation to install a guardrail in front of his home to prevent vehicles from wrecking on his property.

But DOT officials say any kind of barrier at the site, just beyond a curve on North New Hope Road, could prevent drivers on Fawn Glen Drive from seeing other traffic. It could also lead to collisions, they say, if vehicles hit the guardrail and bounce backward into traffic.

One option would be to close Fawn Glen Drive, a subdivision street that is not maintained by the state, said DOT spokesman Steve Abbott. Workers could then install a barrier where the street meets North New Hope Road.

Raleigh officials would be responsible for closing the street.

“If you have Fawn Glen closed there, that might change what we can do there at the corner,” Abbott said, adding that he expects DOT and Raleigh officials to meet as early as next week to come up with a solution.

At least four of the drivers who have wrecked at the site were speeding, and at least four were driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to police reports.

The speed limit on that stretch of North New Hope Road, about a half-mile from Louisburg Road, is 45 mph. A sign tells drivers to slow to 35 mph at the curve.

Bernarte said he doesn’t care much what the city and state do to prevent further crashes. He just hopes they come up with a plan before another car ends up on his sofa.

‘Living in a nightmare’

Bernarte immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 2000, after a family member offered him a job at a carpet-cleaning business in Raleigh.

He began to save money and in 2004 had enough for a down payment to buy a two-story home in a well-manicured subdivision.

Bernarte says he had no reason to suspect his property on Fawn Glen Drive would become a regular accident site.

“After I moved, I started to hear whispers from neighbors,” he said. Early on, he found shards of broken glass and plastic while working in the yard.

Shortly after moving in, he and his wife, Nenewin, had their first child.

“I was living the American dream,” he said. “And now I’m living in a nightmare.”

The first three years were crash-free. Then, on May 13, 2007, a Ford Mustang veered off of North New Hope Road after clipping the curb at Fawn Glen Drive.

The car crashed into a stone fence that marks the subdivision’s entrance, flipped and came to a rest against a tree. Three people in the car died, including the driver, who was believed to be impaired at the time.

Pieces of masonry flew through the windows of Bernarte’s house and put fist-sized holes in the home’s siding.

Bernarte remembers that a Raleigh police officer consoled his young son, Carl, who was upset. The same officer would later investigate another crash on the property, he said.

After a wreck occurred the following year, Bernarte tried with no luck to sell the house.

“I wanted to move because of the kids,” he said. “It’s been enough trauma already.”

More crashes

An out-of-control vehicle has made its way onto the family’s property every year since 2013, according to police records.

On Oct. 12, 2013, a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol traveling about 60 mph lost control of a vehicle and hit a curb on Fawn Glen Drive, according to a police report. The vehicle rolled and struck a stop sign, which went flying into the home’s living room, where the Bernarte family was gathered.

The sign landed inches away from his daughter, who was 3 at the time, Bernarte said. After that, he installed new window panes designed to withstand hurricanes.

Two years later, on Oct. 11, 2015, a man died after losing control and over-correcting on North New Hope Road. The vehicle hit the stone subdivision fence before striking Bernarte’s house in the middle of the night. The family was sleeping upstairs. The house also was hit on Sept. 24, 2014, when a speeding, impaired driver over-corrected after striking the left curb on North New Hope Road.

After the 2015 crash, DOT installed reflective markers and speed-activated LED signs on the stretch of North New Hope Road, Abbott said.

In the most recent wreck, on Aug. 13, a driver traveling about 60 mph crashed through the subdivision’s stone wall. Rocks and debris pierced the siding of Bernarte’s house and shattered some of the window panes.

The driver was cited by Raleigh police for driving while impaired and without a license.

Abbott said safety measures installed by the state can’t prevent all accidents.

“If someone’s speeding or someone’s drunk, (signs) don’t help,” he said.

Petition

When Chris Redshaw heard about the Bernarte family’s situation, she felt compelled to act.

Although she did not know the family, Redshaw created an online petition on change.org asking the city to buy the house. More than 27,500 people have signed the petition, which is directed to U.S. Reps. David Price and George Holding, N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory and Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane.

“I don’t have much,” Redshaw said. “But I have a voice and a lot of passionate friends.”

Bernarte said he has given up hope of selling the house. He figures no one would want to buy it.

The crashes have taken a toll on his family, Bernarte said. Because he worries most about drunken drivers, the family has been sleeping together in a back bedroom or staying with relatives on weekends.

His son Carl, now a seventh-grader, was shaken the first few times the home was struck, but he is now unfazed.

“This one that just happened, I wasn’t surprised at all,” Bernarte said. “Because it happens on a yearly basis now.”

This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Six drivers have crashed onto his property. Now he wants solutions.."