Driver crashes car into house

An out of control driver flattened a section of hedge with his car and smashed into the front of a New Plymouth house on Saturday night.

The sound of metal hitting concrete resounded around the Westown neighbourhood, near the Tukapa St house where the crash happened about 10.45pm.

One of the tenants of the address, who asked not to be named, said the car smacked into the section of the house which bordered onto her bedroom.

The driver appeared to have driven at speed onto the property from Borrell Ave, she said.

‘‘He came straight through the bush and smacked into the house.

‘‘It was a pretty big bang,’’ she said.

In bed at the time, the woman said the force of the impact was physically felt by her.

‘‘He hit the house that hard I got whiplash,’’ she said.

She said the man, who appeared to have been drinking, had not been wearing a seatbelt at the time and his head had hit the windscreen.

However, he fled the scene before emergency services arrived.

A police spokeswoman confirmed the driver had left the address after the crash but had since been arrested.

She said police had taken him into custody but there was no information yet on what charges he would face.

She said there was also no information available about whether the man sustained any injuries in the crash.

A central Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said a crew had been on hand to assist police and ambulance staff.

The car had dented the outside of the house but as the concrete was reinforced, there was no damage to the inside of the property.

A vehicle-sized hole in the shrubbery was left behind.