Roanoke neighbors raise concerns about speeding after a car crashed into their living room

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Residential safety is a growing concern in Roanoke after a car crashed into a home on 10th Street Northwest over the weekend.

The family whose home was crashed into told WDBJ7 speeding is a big concern for the neighborhood. The posted speed limit is 25 MPH, but resident Ashley Billy Moore explained drivers go by dangerously fast.

“People come through here, you know, just flying,” Moore said.

Moore lives with his family on 10th Street Northwest and never expected a car to go flying into his living room.

“It’s gonna be hard for me to come here and sit and watch TV now because I’m worried about a vehicle coming through and maybe running us over,” Moore said.

Luckily, no one was hurt when the crashed happened around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Carley Martinez explained she went upstairs just minutes before the car came through.

“I sit here [where the car hit] all the time with my cat,” Martinez said. “What if I would have still would have been down here? I mean, I would not even be here right now, or I would be have been seriously injured.”

Surveillance video shows the driver running through the intersection, crashing into the house and then walking away on Greenhurst Avenue Northwest.

“How can you just get out?” Martinez said. “People just don’t have heart anymore these days.”

Longtime resident Joseph Word explained the speeding got worse after the city repaired the roads in 2019.

“It makes me really feel uncomfortable because I walk my dogs at two and three a.m. in the morning,” Word said. “Sometimes drivers will be flying and think its a drag strip. But it’s not a drag strip, it’s a highway to them.”

Some of the neighbors brought the issue to law enforcement, but explained there hasn’t been any change.

“There’s nobody, no cops, no police presence ever on this road unless something happens,” Moore said.

Speeding on 10th Street led to the deaths of two people back in November. After multiple accidents and incidents of speeding, neighbors are looking for solutions.

“I think it needs to be addressed, I mean, how many times is it gonna take somebody to get killed or something like this to happen before they start realizing maybe we got a problem on 10th Street,” Moore said.

Roanoke Police confirmed to WDBJ7 they are investigating this incident as a hit-and-run. Police didn’t find the driver after the crash and no one has been charged.

Roanoke Police declined WDBJ7′s request for an interview about the speeding in the neighborhood. They stated it’s because they have not determined if speeding was the cause of this particular crash.