‘I WOKE UP AND FOUND A CAR AT THE BOTTOM OF MY STAIRS’
A STUNNED homeowner has described the moment a car crashed into his house and came to rest at the bottom of the stairs.
Cameron Davies, 33, his wife Kimberley, their four-year-old daughter Quaide and two-year-old son Crewe were asleep upstairs when the Ford Focus came through the front wall of their house in Maesteg at 1am yesterday.
“It wasn’t a bang, it was a pop,” said Cameron, who plays in the back row for Maesteg RFC.
“It wasn’t enough to wake me out of a deep sleep. I put my head back down until I heard all the people screaming outside.”
Neighbours terrified for the family’s safety had run to the Ewenny Road property to find out if they were hurt and to help them escape.
“I heard glass and everybody shouting our names,” said Cameron.
“I came downstairs. I thought the house was on fire because of the dust and stuff. You couldn’t see down the stairs.”
Then he saw the car which had come to rest at the foot of the stairs, with a significant chunk of wall resting on top of it.
On its way through the house, the car had demolished the garden wall, the front wall of the property and the dining room, before being stopped by the supporting walls either side of the stairs.
Cameron, who works as a shotfirer undertaking blasting in quarries, said: “Then it was panic stations. The first thing on my mind was getting the kids out of the house.”
He passed the children through the small hole that remained above the car to neighbours waiting on the other side.
The family must now stay with relatives while the full extent of the damage is assessed.
The incident has angered residents of Ewenny Road who claim they have repeatedly called on Bridgend County Borough Council to install trafficcalming measures.
About 17 years ago a motorbike crashed into the living room of the same house, number 17, which is now owned by the Davies family.
A car also previously crashed into number 16.
“It’s absolutely ludicrous what’s happening in this street,” said one neighbour. “Something has got to be done.” A South Wales Police spokeswoman said Owen Lyons, 21, from Maesteg, has been charged with driving without due care and attention and drink-driving and will appear before magistrates in Cardiff later this month.