Couple return to smashed fence
A South Taranaki couple have long feared a crash outside their home and on this week it happened.
A woman was trapped in her car and need to be freed by emergency services before being taken to hospital after a three car collision on the corner of Puriri St and South Rd, Ha¯ wera, at 2.30pm on Tuesday.
Homeowners Trevor and Christine Westbury were in New Plymouth at the time but granddaughter Denay Clare, 17, was sick and watching TV in their lounge. ‘‘She heard the first smash then heard the second which was the car hitting the fence,’’ Christine said.
Clare ran out to see a car in the fence and was shaken and shocked by what she saw.
She phoned the police and then called her grandparents.
‘‘You could hear the shock in her voice,’’ Christine said.
‘‘We didn’t believe it at first, driving home and even now we’re still trying to figure out how it all happened.’’
Despite the damaged fence the couple said the crash could have been a whole lot worse.
‘‘The bricks at the bottom of the fence probably stopped the car from ending up in our lounge,’’ Trevor said.
Christine had parked her car near the crash scene earlier in the day but decided to move it before they went to New Plymouth ‘‘just in case’’.
‘‘We’re more worried about the lady involved and hope that she’s OK, the fence is repairable,’’ she said.
Trevor said when they bought the house around two and a half years ago part of its appeal was the traffic, but now they avoided using the intersection if they could.
‘‘It’s always just so busy so we just go around the block and turn onto the road where it’s quieter,’’ Trevor said.
While the crash had shaken the couple they had no plans of selling up and moving anytime soon. But the pair did joke it would be the last time they left Clare at home by herself.
‘‘It hasn’t changed how we feel about the neighbourhood we like it here,’’ Trevor said.