A man had a narrow escape after a car ploughed into the kitchen at 30mph and shunted the oven across the room – minutes after he had cooked some sausages.
Nick Poole, 40, had taken just two bites out of his sausage sandwich when he heard a huge bang and rushed back into the kitchen to find a Citroen C5 had reversed into the house.
Nick, who was house-sitting for his parents Josie and Tony Poole while they were on holiday, said the noise was so loud he thought a plane had hit the house.
“I was incredibly lucky the car didn’t hit me as I had been cooking in the kitchen just one minute before,” he said. “I was sitting in the lounge and had just started eating when I heard lots of loud bangs, one after the other. It was so loud I thought a plane had crashed into the house. I ran into the kitchen and I couldn’t believe it when I saw the car inside, I’m still quite shaken about it.”
The car was reversed into the house by a female neighbour who lives opposite the Pooles.
“I think she had a problem with her engine and when she hit reverse the car shot back at high speed,” added Nick, a garage owner, who lives in Bassingbourn, Herts. “It must have hit the house at about 30mph, but luckily the woman was fine and the back of the car took the impact. She was very shaken and in shock and her husband rushed over from across the street and got her out.”
The car hit the gas mains and water pipes and flooded the kitchen. The street in Royston, Herts, had to be evacuated while the fire services and police dealt with the incident. Two fire services from Hertfordshire attended, as well as Herts police and the National Grid.
A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The gas main was leaking gas so we established an exclusion zone and we made the area safe until the arrival of the gas board.”
Josie, 60, and her husband Tony, 64, had only moved into their home five months ago, after spending a year renovating it. They had decided to down-size after 35 years and move into the house, which used to belong to Josie’s mum.
Josie, who returned home from Fuerteventura last night (Wed), said: “My son was good at telling us what had happened so we came back knowing it would be devastated. I haven’t looked at the damage in daylight yet. We have only lived in the house for a few months and it wasn’t quite finished, now we’ve got to start again. Nick was so lucky not to have been hit by the car, I think he is still quite shaken about it. The car hit the cooker with such force it shot across the room into a cupboard on the other side.”
