Resident’s near miss as car hits his house
Terrifying moment caught on camera
I threw myself sideways — it was the only way to get out of the way. Mount Maunganui resident Bill Biehler
The moment a man narrowly dodged an out-of-control car as it smashed through a metal fence and into his brick house has been caught on camera.
Mount Maunganui resident Bill Biehler said he was in his garage painting yesterday afternoon when he decided to go into the house to get some water.
As he headed through the open garage door he was forced to jump back as a car reversed at speed from Grenada St through his front fence and into a bedroom of his home.
“I moved back and threw myself sideways — it was the only way to get out of the way.
“I just departed from [the garage] and suddenly it was in my face,” he told the Bay of Plenty Times, standing in front of a huge hole in his brick home.
The bedroom inside was a jumble of bricks, overturned furniture, joinery, Gib and bedding.
Biehler understood the driver had lost control of her car.
“[She came] through the wrought iron fence, narrowly missed me and went into the bedroom.”
He said the noise of the crash was “louder than a shotgun”.
Biehler said he moved back “in a hurry” into the garage to avoid the car and dropped to his knees.
“Except for a couple of grazes [on my knees], that’s all I’ve got left to show for it.”
He said he was a bit shaken up by the brush with danger: “That’s the nearest I’ve had in my life.”
His wife Kim Biehler said she was “lucky” because she was outside only moments before the car crashed.
She was upstairs making a cup of tea when it happened.
He said: “Normally she’s switching her pot plants around out there — it’s just lucky she wasn’t standing there.”
The crash was captured by a home security camera.
In the video, tables and a stall of potted plants on their verge are sent flying as the car bursts through the fence, sending the gate skidding off its rails and to the ground.
The vehicle curves around the front of garage, narrowly missing Biehler leaping out of its path, and drives out of shot as it smashes into the house. Biehler said he went to check on the driver afterwards and then called emergency services, who showed up “very quick”.
He was “grateful” to the police, fire and ambulance workers who came. “You suddenly realise what a great job they do.”
A police spokesman said police were alerted to a single-vehicle crash on Grenada St, near Matavai St, at about 1.15pm.
Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing.
A St John spokeswoman said one ambulance responded to the scene and treated two patients for minor injuries.