A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD boy is being questioned by police today following a triple car crash escapade in a village street.

Three people needed hospital treatment, with two detained overnight, while two cars were badly damaged in the spree in Quarrington Hill, near Durham, yesterday afternoon.

The teenager was said to have been at the wheel of the Ford Focus, with the 21-year-old owner in the passenger seat, when it went out of control in Hawthorn Crescent.

It mounted the nearside footpath and collided with an unattended parked Volkswagen Golf, pushing it into a garden wall.

The Focus then veered back onto the road and struck a 59-year-old pedestrian, a local man from Hawthorn Crescent, who was taken to Durham's University Hospital of North Durham suffering a hairline skull fracture and a leg injury.

Police said today that he remained in hospital, but was, "giving no cause for concern".

The car veered onto the opposite, offside, footpath, colliding with a Renault Clio parked on the drive way of a house with the occupants sitting inside.

Both the occupants, a 45-year-old couple, who also live in the street, were taken to the hospital.

The woman was later released after treatment for minor cuts, but her husband was detained overnight suffering a head injury and damaged lungs.

Police located the 15-year-old, who is from Quarrington Hill, and the car owner, from Ferryhill, County Durham.

A Durham force spokesman said: "Obviously, because of the age of the driver and circumstances, we are investigating the incident thoroughly and interviewing both the driver and passenger."

But he added that investigating officers would also like to speak to any witnesses to the series of accidents or anyone who may have seen the car being driven prior to the incidents, which took place at about 4.50pm yesterday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Durham Police accident investigation unit, on 0845-60-60-365.