Great day for an early breakfast
If they had kept to their normal routine, Kaikohe couple June and Kirk Bedggood would have been in bed when a car crashed into their bedroom wall on Wednesday morning.
That day, however, they were up and preparing an early breakfast, on the other side of the house, but the crash was still bad enough to make Mrs Bedggood wonder if there had been an earthquake.
When she ventured outside she saw a car wedged under her bedroom wall and a man scarpering as fast as his legs could carry him.
The Holden Commodore crashed into the house, the driver having failed to take the corner on the intersection of De Merle and Hongi streets, demolishing a fence on the way, at a little after 7am.
“I was just cooking breakfast when the whole house shook and ornaments fell off the walls. I thought it was an earthquake,” Mrs Bedggood said.
“I went out the front and saw a car sticking out of the house and a guy hoofing across the lawn. I yelled at him, ‘Stop! Look at the bloody mess you’ve made of my home’.”
He didn’t stop, and she didn’t give chase because her immediate concern was that the car could ignite and burn the house down. The house was filled with petrol fumes.
Two fire appliances, three police cars and a crash investigator responded.
The impact took out three rows of piles, lifted the floor and broke a window. The house, owned by the Bedggoods’ daughter, was insured. And it would not be the first claim, Mrs Bedggood said. In the 10 years they had lived there the fence had been hit twice, the gate once, and a nearby power pole once.
This time damage to the house, including foundations and a structural wall, was substantial, so a building inspector was called out to make sure it was safe to remove the vehicle.
Mrs Bedggood planned to ask the Far North District Council to install bollards in front of the house, or speed bumps on De Merle St to slow traffic.
Meanwhile a 20-year-old Kaikohe man surrendered himself to police on Thursday, Sergeant Kevin Milne saying the man and his man and his family had come forward and were engaging with police and the Bedggoods.
“We’re very happy that he’s stepped up and taken responsibility for his action,” Mr Milne said, adding that he would likely be referred to the Te Pae Oranga alternative justice system, comprising a panel of community members, rather than the district court.
Police were still keen to hear from anyone who saw the crash but had not yet been spoken to, however, and the occupants of another car that was almost hit by the offending vehicle at the intersection of Harold Ave and Bisset Rd a few minutes before the crash.