Wilton home hit by cars five times, owner seeks safety measures

On Monday morning, March 28, 2022. Julie Duval was getting her kids ready for school.

“It was snowing and the roads were covered,” she recalled. “I saw the car coming down the hill at an incredible speed, and I thought, ‘It’s going to hit the house.'”

The car veered off of Pead Hill Road and careened into her living room, leaving damage that “looked like a bomb went off,” she said.

Duval called 911. After emergency personnel arrived and found no one injured, the building inspector was called and soon arrived to check on the damage. Castle Construction patched up the initial hole, but repairs took three months and cost $54,000. “Fortunately the insurance covered the cost,” she said.

Since Duval moved into her Wilton home at 88 Dale St. in October 2019, two cars have crashed into it, causing nearly $80,000 in damage. Three other incidents occurred between then and February 2026.

The home is located at the Dale Street/Pead Hill Road intersection, a section town officials noted as hazardous in winter conditions.

In the winter of 2023, a car flattened a rebar pole in Duval’s yard. Then, in January 2025, while working in the Wilton Ambulance Service building, she heard a call over the radio reporting that a car hit her stone wall.

“Another car ran into the rock wall in front of my house,” she said. “It caused about $500 in damages.”

Fate had more in store for Duval’s property. “On Jan. 17, 2026, my husband and I were woken up by a large crash that shook the whole house,” she said. “A car took out a tree in the front yard before colliding with the bay window area.”

Duval said the floor had separated from the wall and cracks formed inside the house. “The entire bay window had to be torn down and the floor boards had to be replaced,” she told the Select Board.

Repairs are ongoing and have cost Duval $23,000, although she expects a higher final figure.

She said a fifth vehicle drove through a snowbank in front of the house and stopped in the front yard on Feb. 26.

“I’ve been left with severe anxiety and panic attacks,” Duval said. “I don’t feel safe in my own home.”

Duval presented the matter at the March 9 Select Board meeting.

She asked the town in 2022 if she could place boulders between her home and the intersection, but was told they must be six feet from the road.

“Our house sits very close to the road, so six feet isn’t feasible for us,” she said. “Also, we don’t own the property to the right of our house, so we would need permission from the neighbors.”

Duval said she sent Town Administrator Nick Germain a certified letter explaining how dangerous the intersection was.

In the Jan. 19 letter, she asked the town to conduct a road safety audit for the intersection and implement appropriate safety measures, including protective barriers, guard rails and better signage.

Duval said Germain responded after the car crashed into the snowbank in February this year.

In his Feb. 25 reply, Germain cited the town’s duties regarding the conditions of Class V highways as set forth in RSA 231:90.

“Those statutes provide that a municipality shall not be liable for damages in an action to recover for personal injury or property damage rising out of its construction, maintenance, or repair of public highways and sidewalks,” he said, with caveats.

According to the language in the RSA that Germain outlined, unless an injury or damage was caused by “an insufficiency” and either the town received a notice or had knowledge of the insufficiency, or it was the result of an intentional act of a town official in a negligent or reckless manner, the town was not liable.

The RSA says a highway is considered insufficient if it is not passable in any safe manner by people or vehicles permitted on it, or there exists a safety hazard which is not reasonably discoverable or avoidable by a person traveling at the posted speeds or in accordance with road and weather conditions.

Germain said the Department of Public Works inspected the intersection to identify an insufficiency and determined it was passable in a safe manner by those persons or vehicles permitted on the highway.

“Both roadways are in good condition with no apparent cracks, divots, potholes or other defects,” he said, adding the intersection’s stop sign has good visibility and is in good condition.

Germain said Duval’s experiences appear to be caused by drivers failing to operate their vehicles in a prudent manner determined by the winter conditions.

“This does not constitute an insufficiency for which the town would be legally obligated to take action under RSA 231:90,” he said.

“The town acknowledges your concerns and the unfortunate occurrence of your home being struck by a vehicle,” Germain said. “If you wish to discuss obtaining permission to install a guardrail or other structures on the town’s portion of the right-of-way immediately abutting your property, please let me know.”

Germain also said the town will investigate signage placement along Dale Street to advise descending motorists of the approaching intersection and the need to reduce speed in approaching the Pead Hill Road intersection.

Duval told Germain she sent an email Feb. 26 asking the board add the issue to its agenda following the final incident, but never received a response.

According to Germain, the meeting wasn’t scheduled because DPW Director John Bukkhegyi went on vacation. He added the town also can’t discuss the matter without first consulting legal counsel.

Select Board Chair Kermit Williams said the state needed to be part of the conversation as well.

Both Duval and the Select Board suspect the events are linked to roadwork in 2018.

Bukkhegyi said the town last paved the road in 2018.

“The road didn’t change too much,” he said. “They turned the lane going up Pead Hill from Dale Street from a two-way into a one-way, and widened the right lane going down Pead Hill to Dale.”

Select Board member Tom Schultz said cars have a difficult time stopping at the intersection when the roads are covered in snow because of the incline.

Police Chief John Frechette said that as cars turn left at the stop sign, speed keeps them moving forward, resulting in the incidents Duval experienced.

“It happened before I moved in and it will continue to happen,” Duval said. “If it was your house would you live with it?”

She said various law firms confirmed she has a valid case, but none were willing to cover it.

Duval and her husband emphasized they aren’t looking to sue the town, since insurance covers the repair costs.

“We just want to ensure the safety of our house and the people coming down this road here,” she said. “What’s it going to take, someone getting severely injured?”

Schultz told Duval nobody wants to see another car hit her house. “Whatever the solution is, we can all work on it together and hopefully reduce your risk, liability and stress,” he said.