It wasn’t the birds chirping, the rooster crowing or the alarmclock that awakened Washington Street resident Rebecca BuieWednesday morning. It was the sound of a vehicle crashing into herhome.

“I thought someone had dropped a bomb on my house,” she said asshe stood in the front yard, speaking with police and fireman whoresponded to the accident. “I heard a ‘boom,’ and I jumped up andsaid, ‘What is that?’ I looked out the door and thought a carprobably ran into the house.”

Buie was right.

Shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, a white Pontiac driven by15-year-old Quaneta Washington plowed into the front of Buie’shome, burying the nose of the car into the home’s base. Washingtonwas transported to King’s Daughters Medical Center; her passenger,Donald Edwards – also of school age – remained on the scene.

It is unclear exactly how Washington came to strike the house,but Buie suspects the under-aged driver ran the stop sign at CenterStreet directly across from her home and jumped the ditch in herfront yard.

The Brookhaven Police Department had no report on the accidentas of press time Wednesday, but Buie has seen it happen before.

“This is about the third time a car ran into the yard,” saidBuie, who has lived in the house for 20 years. “This time it gotthe house.”

The crashed vehicle was left protruding into the house Wednesdaymorning until Buie could arrange an inspection of the damage.Brookhaven firefighters feared removing the car could cause thehouse’s front wall to collapse.

“I hope she’s got insurance to pay for this,” Buie said.