DRINK-DRIVE CARNAGE
FAMILY LEFT THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OUT OF POCKET AFTER YOUNG DRINK-DRIVER SMASHES INTO THEIR HOME
A HORRIFIED family woke to find a car inside their living room – after a drink-driver caused £80,000 of damage in a late-night smash.
Parents Kimberley and Cameron Davies, both 33, were woken by a huge bang after putting their children to bed.
And they went downstairs to see a thick plume of smoke – and the wreckage of a grey Ford Focus sitting in their living room.
Kimberley said: “One minute I was dreaming and the next minute I heard screaming.
“We both jumped out of bed and saw thick grey smoke near the bannister.
“When we looked down stairs we saw piles of rubble, shattered glass and the grey car in our living room. It looked like a bomb had gone off.”
The couple ran to get their children – Quaide, four, and Crewe, two – before passing them through the hole in the wall to safety.
Kimberley spoke of her horror after going to court to see drink-driver Owen Lyons, 21, appear after he hit the semi-detached house while being twice the legal limit.
Lyons, who works for Western Power, had been driving up to 130mph before the horror crash in Maesteg, near Bridgend.
Lyons was charged with drink-driving and driving without care and attention.
He was handed a 22-month driving ban and a £525 fine by Cardiff magistrates.
Kimberley slammed the sentence after the couple had to fork out £15,000 of their own money to repair some of the £80,000 worth of damage.
The garden wall along with internal and external walls had to be rebuilt.
Builders also had to re-plaster, paint, re-wire and decorate – taking months to finish.
Kimberley said: “It was so stressful. Our insurance company argued over some of the costs which they refused to cover.
“The insurance wouldn’t match the windows upstairs with the ones that had been destroyed downstairs so we had to pay for them.
“On top of the £400 excess we’ve had to dip into our personal savings. We ended up spending £15,000 out of our own money.”
Kimberley and Cameron went to court to see “justice served” – but say their “jaws dropped” on hearing the sentence.
The mum of two added: “If he crashed in the daytime it was where my children played with their toys. I can’t even bear to think about it.
“It made me so angry to think a drink driver with no concern for anyone else had turned our home into pile rubble in about 10 seconds and we were out of pocket for it.
“Our jaws dropped to the floor when his sentence was read out.”
The family are now safely back home and say they feel “lucky to be alive.”