Driver, 79, escapes after car smashes into house (From The Northern Echo)

Driver, 79, escapes after car smashes into house

8:23am Thursday 29th July 2010 in

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AN elderly driver is lucky to be alive after his car left the road and crashed through a wall, a garden and the gable end of a house before finally coming to a halt in a living room.

The incident happened at about 6am today when the car travelled about 20 metres from the road ending up inside the home on Levington Mews, Kirklevington, Teesside.

Firefighters were called to the scene to cut the 79-year-old man free from the wreckage and an ambulance took him to James Cook University Hospital where he was treated for head injuries. An officer from the Cleveland Police Crash Investigations Unit, said: “Luckily the house, which has a ‘to let’ sign, was empty at the time.”

A colleague, who did not want to be named, said that previously another car had demolished two large pillars outside another house on the development.

“It’s been an accident waiting to happen."

Christine Torr

He said: “The driver has survived and is being treated in hospital. “The road goes from a national speed limit of 60mph to 40mph on this bend.

“To go through a wall and then go through a wall into a house, he’s very lucky.

“For reasons still be determined he hasn’t taken the bend.” He was asked if speed was a key factor in the crash, but declined to comment. It is thought the driver had been travelling along the A67 in the direction of Yarm.

Local resident, Christine Torr, said: “It’s been an accident waiting to happen.

"These houses should never have been built so close to a major road.”

Another local who didn’t want to be named said: “To see a car that has gone through a wall and through another wall right into a house is horrendous.

“It’s so lucky no one was in otherwise they could have been killed.

“Some people just rent these properties so that might have been why there was no one in.”

The A67 was closed in both directions until about 8am today as emergency services attended the scene.