A MAN has described his horror at arriving home to find a van had crashed through his garden wall - and his deep sense of sadness at learning a man had died.
David Cullen, 21, spoke after police confirmed a man had died when his van crashed into a house in Medomsley Road, Consett, at about 11.55pm on Thursday.
Mr Cullen said: "I was out last night and I came home with my girlfriend at about 3am to see what I thought was a van crashed into my neighbour’s house.
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“The road had been taped off and my instant response was to ask the police if my old neighbour okay. I wasn't really worried about my house, but I thought that he'd maybe get hurt.
“Then I saw it had crashed through a wall and into my garden. I couldn't get in the front door and to go around the back.
“It's grim what happened. It's really upsetting that the young bloke lost his life. It’s only hitting me now that someone has died.”
He added: “It appears the car was driving north along Medomsley Road, when it clipped the pole before swinging around and going through the garden wall.”
His neighbour Mick Curran, 85, said: “I heard a loud crash and heard a lot of shouting. I got out of bed and came down had a look.
“When I looked over my wall and saw the van. It was a hell of a shock. I've been in this about 43 years and never known anything like this. It is really sad.”
A Durham Police spokesperson told The Northern Echo: "Police were called at 11.55pm yesterday (May 19) to a collision in which a van had collided with a house in Medomsley Road, Consett.
"Sadly, a male occupant of the van was pronounced dead at the scene.
"The road was closed until 9.30am today to allow for recovery of the vehicle and for collision investigators to work at the scene."
The crash caused power to be cut in a number of homes.
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A North East Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "We received a call at 11.53pm last night to reports of a road traffic incident on Medomsley Road, Consett.
"We dispatched two ambulance crews, one crew from our Hazardous Area Response Team (HART), one specialist paramedic, and requested support from the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS)."
A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said: “We received a call from the emergency services to attend a road traffic accident on Medomsley Road in Consett at around midnight last night (19 May) which had resulted in damage to one of our electricity poles and overhead power lines.
“Our teams worked with the emergency services at the scene to access the area so they could carry out the necessary repairs to restore power to four customers who were temporarily without power.
“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the driver and we thank our customers for their patience whilst we worked to restore their power.”
Northern Powergrid restored power to the affected customers at 11.55am today.
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