COUPLE RATTLED BY CLOSE SHAVE
AN elderly couple have told of the moment a car smashed through their front yard and on to their patio “like an explosion’’, stopping just inches from the house.
Douglas and Doreen Blanshard were left rattled after a motorist, who was later charged with drink driving, lost control on a roundabout near their Elanora home in KP McGrath Dve.
The couple described the roundabout as “the corner from hell’’.
“It was just as if someone had thrown a bomb in the front yard,” Mr Blanshard said. “Just boom, a tremendous bang. It wasn’t like a car backfiring, it was like an explosion, then it was dead quiet.”
A 54-year-old man, who police allege was four times over the legal alcohol limit, was headed east in KP McGrath Dve about 9pm when he failed to negotiate the roundabout and crashed through the yard, smashing hardwood support beams, a palm tree and a large number of shrubs.
“He squashed all the shrubs and took out four hardwood support beams,” Mr Blanshard said.
“He got back in and tried to turn the motor over. It worked and he tried to reverse out but he had no hope of getting out.”
Police allege the man, from Deception Bay north of Brisbane, had a blood alcohol reading of .192.