Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993                   TAG: 9306150016
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ED SHAMY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GIRLS' SLEEPOVER WAS STUFF NIGHTMARES ARE MADE OF

The girls opened the sleeper sofa in front of the television set in the living room, grabbed some popcorn and turned on a rented copy of "Pretty Woman."

As 12-year-old girls are apt to do at a sleepover, they outlasted Tracie's mom. Jackie Roseberry climbed the stairs and went to bed.

Tracie was half asleep as midnight passed.

"Suddenly, there was this big huge boom," she said. "It took me a few minutes to focus, even though I still had my glasses on."

She could see bricks and plaster and insulation and dust. Furniture had been tossed across the room.

Scariest of all for Tracie was the sound of an engine revving, over and over just 10 feet from the bed. She cowered with her friend.

"I just started screaming," she said.

Jackie Roseberry dashed down the stairs, stepping over rubble as she rushed to make sure the girls were all right.

Jackie quickly figured out what had happened: A car had driven into their house.

She dialed the Salem police and went outside.

Sure enough, there was a compact car embedded in the front of the Roseberry's town house.

It was 20 minutes before 1 o'clock, Monday morning.

It took a wrecker a long time to get the car out, and even longer for volunteers to patch the 4-foot-by-4-foot hole in the wall with a shower curtain and some carpeting. The front wall had been smashed and will have to be replaced. Grandma's heirloom table wobbles as it never did before. The door frame is knocked back a few inches.

Police officers swept the beer bottles off the street.

Jackie and Tracie and their friend spent the rest of the night elsewhere. After the sun came up Monday, they had a better view of the car tracks that climbed their front lawn.

They live at Dalewood Avenue and Ellis Court. The speed limit is 25 mph.

The Salem police report notes that the driver of the car said he lost control of the vehicle.

The report also says that officer Michele Knight thought the driver's ability may have been impaired by alcohol.

Because we have laws with loopholes big enough to accommodate a tractor-trailer and a flying circus simultaneously, and because police know that, the driver was not charged with driving under the influence.

But Terry Allen Beckner, 23, of Christiansburg, was charged with driving with a suspended license. He was taken to the hospital, but didn't appear to be seriously injured.

And so another night in the Roanoke Valley, another suspended driver in search of victims. This time, 10 feet of living room spared us the mourning.

Who was at risk this time, who were the near-casualties?

Two 12-year-old girls in bed.