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ATTLEBORO - Stephen Lepper was preparing for repairs to his Maple Street home Wednesday morning after a car struck it, smashing the foundation and nearly hitting his car.

"I was in the kitchen when it happened. It sounded like a bomb went off. I thought it was my boiler or something," said Lepper, 45, the nephew of state Rep. John Lepper, R-Attleboro.

No one was seriously hurt in the 7:30 a.m. crash, Lepper and fire officials said.

But Lepper says cars hitting the 106-year-old house, which sits on a curve in the road at Day Street, are becoming too common - four times in the last 2 1/2 years and 10 in the last 20 years.

"It's happening a little too frequently," he said. The elderly woman who was driving the car may have suffered some kind of medical problem, Fire Capt. Dennis Perkins said, but was not seriously hurt from the crash, despite hitting the house at about 35 mph.

The car clipped a chain-link fence, went across Day Street and struck the house just right of three cement-filled metal poles Lepper installed to protect his home.

"We're talking about building a cement wall now," Lepper said.

The driver's name was not available and the accident remains under investigation by police.

Lepper installed cement steps on the front of the house in November after a driver struck the old set during the season's first snow storm.

"Most of the time it's been when it's icy and they take the turn a little too fast," Lepper said.

In the past, Lepper said, some drivers did not stop and only "left a trail of debris all the way to Kozy Kitchen," a restaurant a few doors from his home.

Lepper, who was clearing broken cement blocks from the foundation, said he could not estimate the damage or cost of repairs.

Building Inspector Doug Semple responded to the accident and said the house was still habitable.

Lepper appeared to take the whole incident in stride, despite the history of accidents at his home. "I'm just glad no one got hurt," he said.