CAR PLOUGHS INTO HOUSE
MIRACLE ESCAPE
ARREST AFTER HIGH-SPEED CRASH
PEOPLE living in a house in Bristol were ‘lucky to be alive’ after a car was driven into it at such high speed the house will have to be rebuilt.
Three people living in the house, which is divided into two flats, are now effectively homeless following the incident, which neighbours described as ‘terrifying.’
The car was embedded in the back of the house in Bedminster, which has suffered severe structural damage.
The building was to be shored up and walls made safe before the vehicle could be removed.
Inside, the ground floor flat has been completely trashed, with the kitchen and bathroom filled with debris and rubble, and the dividing wall between them lifted six inches off the ground.
The blue BMW, which left the road opposite the entrance to the car park of Asda Bedminster, left a trail of destruction some 70 yards long on St John’s Road.
A lamppost was broken clean off, and more street furniture was demolished. Debris littered the pavement on the west side of the road, including one of the vehicle’s tyres.
The car smashed through a 6ft fence, across a neighbour’s garden and through a breezeblock wall into the back yard of the house on the corner of St John’s Road and Brook Road.
“It had three wheels by this stage, completely demolished the wall and was still going so fast that it caused this much damage to the house,” said the owner of the property, who wanted to remain anonymous.
“It is just so very lucky no one was in the kitchen or the bathroom downstairs when it happened; they could’ve been killed. The back of the house will have to be completely rebuilt. It is incredible how much damage this has caused.
“It came through here like a tank – that’s a brand new BMW and it has destroyed everything in its path.”
One neighbour, who was at home at the time, said everyone in the street rushed out to help.
“It is truly miraculous that nobody was injured,” said the woman, who asked not to be named.
“You can get an idea of just how fast he was travelling by looking at the lamppost and the trail of gouges in the pavement.
“The noise was horrendous from the impact when the car hit the lamppost to the point when the car barreled past our houses, smashed through a double fence, obliterated two concrete reinforced posts, several wooden vegetable boxes, compost bins, water butts, a ten foot wall and ended up embedded in the house.”
The woman rents out the two flats to three people, and said that she was disappointed with the response from her insurance company, the police and the council to the incident, which happened at just after 11pm on Thursday.
“It’s all been left to me to sort out, when I would have hoped my insurance company would be straight down here to sort out the mess,” she said. “I haven’t got any other spare places for them to stay, so they are luckily able to stay with friends.”
The driver of the vehicle has not been formally named by police, as he has not been charged with any offences.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police said on Friday that a 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving following a road traffic collision in which a car collided with a house.
“Significant damage was caused to the property but thankfully no one was hurt,” he said. “The man has since been released under investigation and enquiries into the incident are ongoing.”
❝ It came through here like a tank – that’s a brand new BMW and it has destroyed everything in its path Property owner