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This story was corrected on Dec. 3, 2009. An explanation of the correction is at the end of the story.

Residents of the Summerfield Crossing community in Boyds say they want the developer to install a guardrail strong enough to stop a vehicle in front of a retaining wall that has already been the site of at least one accident.

In January 2006, a resident of Ethel Rose Way was backing out of her driveway into an alley behind her house and went over the ledge of the retaining wall, according to a Montgomery County Police accident report. The vehicle hit a tree, fell about 25 feet and landed on its roof in a neighbor's backyard.

Residents of the row of 12 townhouses must use the alley to exit their street.

"We recognized that this was clearly a safety hazard," said Joe Wolski, director-at-large of the Summerfield Crossing Homeowners' Association. "...I can only imagine that when two wheels go over, the whole car's going to go."

Residents want the developer of the four-year-old community, Pulte Homes of Michigan, to replace the barrier in front of the retaining wall, a waist-high aluminum fence strong enough to keep a person from falling over the ledge, with a steel guardrail before it deeds the 255-home subdivision off of West Old Baltimore Road to the HOA.

The roof of Mariana Chan's Toyota RAV4 was strong enough to support the vehicle's weight, and she climbed out shaken but uninjured.

"It's like a decoration fence — if you push it, it moves," she said. "It's not strong enough."

Lewis Birnbaum, president of Pulte's Mid-Atlantic Division, "said he would be willing to look at the issue," said Caryn Klebba, corporate communications director.

The HOA began requesting that Pulte install a vehicle guardrail in May, Wolski said. Pulte has not formally responded to the request but representatives have said the company is not obligated to put in a guardrail because it was not on the development site plan, he said. The site plan was approved by county planners in 2003.

"It's clear that it's a safety issue regardless of what's on the plan," Wolski said. "It's unconscionable that they didn't do anything to correct it after this incident occurred."

Much of the community was under construction at the time of the accident and few residents were aware it had happened, Wolski said. Residents began serving on the HOA's board in January 2008, he said.

An engineer hired by the HOA to assess the development before ownership is transferred wrote in his July report that the lack of a guardrail was the most significant issue he observed and described the retaining wall as a safety hazard, Wolski said. The HOA plans to pay for a guardrail, expected to cost between $11,000 and $14,000, if it is not provided by Pulte, HOA managing agent Ravi Parkhie said.

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the president of Pulte Homes' Mid-Atlantic Division. His name is Lewis Birnbaum.