The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
NOT AGAIN!
Homeowner demands action after a car ploughs into her house for the second time in three years:
A Peterborough woman has spoken of her shock after a car crashed into her home for the second time in three years.
The Ford Focus smashed into the living room of the home on Atherstone Avenue last week - three years after a car had crashed into the home’s guest bedroom.
Miraculously, no-one was seriously hurt in either crash - but resident 53-year-old Vigie Hammond is calling on the council to put measures in to slow drivers down.
The latest crash happened just before 7pm on August 24.
Vigie said: “I was in the kitchen when all of a sudden I heard a crash, like lots of drinking glasses had been dropped on the floor.
“I went to look what had happened, and I saw the car had come through the wall. I immediately thought ‘oh no, not again.’
“I went outside, and quite a crowd had gathered. There were four people who were in the car, and they all ran off.
“It is amazing that no-one was hurt. That is the room we are in a lot of the time - if we had been in there when this happened, we would have been seriously injured, or
worse.
“The street can be busy with pedestrians as well, as people walk to the hospital and the park from here.
“Last time, when the car went into the bedroom, my
husband had only been in the room five minutes before. He would have been crushed if it had happened when he was in there.
“We have been lucky twice. Something has to be done to stop it happening a third time.
“We need speed bumps put in place on Atherstone Avenue and Buckland Close to slow people down.
“It has been worse in recent years. The road is quite wide, and it is an open corner. People come through so fast. We can’t wait for someone to be injured or killed here.’’
The car remained stuck in the side of the house this week, and the wall is unlikely to be fixed for a number of months.
However, the family have been able to stay in their home while the work is carried out.
Vigie said: “The house structure is still OK, so we have been able to stay.
“We were offered a place in a hotel, but we wanted to stay.”
Cambridgeshire police said there had been no arrests made following the latest crash, and investigations were continuing.
A Peterborough City Council spokesperson said: “The council takes road safety extremely seriously and we are working with the police to understand the causes of these accidents to determine what measures may be needed.
“The council does take action when there is a history of accidents and the council has recently installed traffic calming measures on Park Crescent in response to a series of accidents that were being caused by excessive speeding.”