WOBURN - Three decades ago, a van came screeching off Route 128 near her Boyd Road home and crashed, reportedly launching the vehicle's inebriated driver over the fence to her backyard and onto the roof of her shed.

Amazingly the man survived, and no one else was hurt in the incident, although the chain link fence separating her backyard, as well as a corner of the roof where the man landed, had to be repaired.

But this was no isolated incident.

In 1999, again in the early morning hours, another drunk driver exited off of Route 128, plowing right through the fence that had been repaired close to 30 years earlier. The car slammed into a tree in the backyard and bounced-off into the shed.

As is often the case with intoxicated motorists, the driver simply walked away, apparently unscathed in the one-car crash. But moments after he abandoned the crash scene, Sharon Simeone's shed sparked into flames.

The shed, and with it her father's work tools and an antique car, burnt to the ground.

According to Simeone, of 18 Boyd Road, incidents like this illustrate how those Woburn and Burlington residents advocating for sound barriers along Route 128 want protection from much more than the roaring echoes of tractor trailer trucks and the screeching of car breaks.

"If anyone had been in the yard at these times, they would have been killed," the Boyd resident told the City Council this week.

James Flaherty, Simeone's Boyd Road neighbor, can recall various occasions where he's walked into his backyard and found footprints imprinted in the ground, leading to a window of his home from the highway.

During one particularly frightening moment, his daughter's friends came running-up to him while they were playing in the backyard for a birthday party. Nearby, a man was taking photographs of the children, but he jumped back into his car parked near the highway before anything could be done.

According to Harold Avenue resident Chris Bortlik, a member of the Woburn Sound Barrier Committee, his citizen advocacy group has joined with their Burlington counterparts to send one message to MassHighway and state legislators: "We've had enough."

And next Wednesday, Bortlik hopes all other affected parties will join his group at the Woburn Senior Center at 144 School St., where a forum will be held at 7 p.m. to push for their cause.

"Noise from vehicles traveling on Route 128 ad 93 has gotten worse in recent years and is eroding our quality of life," said Bortlik at this week's City Council meeting.

"To add insult to injury, vehicles can lose control and fly off the highway; land in a neighbor's yard; destroy property; and threaten the safety of residents and their families," the Woburn Sound Barrier Committee spokesman furthered, adding that state agencies have already concluded that the noise level from the highway exceeds acceptable government standards.

According to the group, at the Wednesday, March 14 forum at the Woburn Senior Center next week, a number of local officials from Burlington and Woburn, as well as state legislators, will lend an ear to the group's cause.

Anyone who wishes to comment, vent concerns, or lobby for an approach to obtaining sound barriers is invited to attend.