It wasn't a tree. A speeding car struck the front of her home so hard that it cracked the foundation, causing over $15,000 worth of damage.

"We were in shock," Biggs said. "[There's] major structural damage. It's been a real fiasco, and a major inconvenience for us."

The speeding problem in West Laurel is a larger one that concerns many residents, especially on Bond Mill and Brooklyn Bridge roads.

"It's a problem to the residents who live there," said Maj. Thomas Connolly, District 6 Commander for Prince George's County police. "It's just a major transit route and gets a lot of traffic. We try to deal with this the best we can."

These and other side streets are used ­ often by residents themselves ­ as shortcut streets to get to and from Route 198 and Interstate 95 more quickly, said Judy Thacher, a resident and aide to Prince George's County Councilman Thomas Dernoga (D-Dist. 1) of Laurel.

"Everybody speeds," Thacher said. "We're aware that enforcement is the main thing that can be done... and it's the responsibility of the constituents, too, to slow down."

Thacher said Dernoga's office called Prince George's County Police the same day Biggs called her in December to air concerns over her house being hit. The police agreed to increase patrols in the area, and also sent documentation of 37 warnings, 48 tickets and one arrest between mid-October and mid-January.

Connolly said on "overlap days" when two squads are scheduled to cover an area instead of one, the extra squad is assigned to patrol for speeding on Bond Mill if possible. That happens once or twice a month, he said.

Bond Mill Elementary School Principal Justin FitzGerald said he appreciated the police response to community concerns, but would also not be averse to additional deterrents, such as speed bumps, to slow drivers down.

"Our students cross the street from Sherwood [Avenue] across Bond Mill," FitzGerald said. "Adhering to that speed limit is just crucial."

The stop sign on Bond Mill Road at Sherwood does not seem to daunt speeders, said resident Mary Lehman.

But Brooklyn Bridge Road, off of which Lehman lives, is a "straight shot from the city to [Route] 198, and nothing to slow you down," she added.

Another problem area is Bounds Avenue, which has also been at the center of efforts to obtain speed bumps by those who feel enforcement is not the only solution.

Resident Lilia Toler wrote to the county Department of Public Works and Transportation in 2003 asking for consideration for speed bumps or similar traffic calming devices on Bounds Avenue.

But she was informed in 2003 after a traffic study that the road did not meet stringent county criteria ­ including traffic volume, average speed, number of accidents, presence of sidewalks, etc. ­ for qualifying for speed bumps. The "prevailing speed," she said, was measured at 32 mph, in a 25 mph zone.

That fall, the county painted solid white lines parking lanes, intended as a visual trick to make drivers feel the road is narrower than it is, and slow down.

"Unfortunately, that hasn't put a dent in a problem," Toler said.

Biggs said she hopes to have a traffic study done on Bond Mill Road to focus on better enforcement. But the road is so wide open, she added, "I don't know that it's going to make a difference."

E-mail Ayesha Ahmad at aahmad@gazette.net.