Car ploughs into house in Lichfield
Apr 22 2010 by Justine Halifax, Birmingham Mail
A MOTHER claimed her family had a narrow escape after a sports car ploughed into her lounge, reducing it to rubble.
Shocked receptionist Kim Lewis and her family were at home when a silver Mitsubishi ploughed into the wall of their lounge, ramming straight through a fireplace.
It stopped just a few feet from where her son’s 23-year-old friend Jake Ashbolt, a Cannock college student, was relaxing on the sofa.
“We are all so lucky to be alive, I just can’t believe it,” said 53-year-old receptionist Kim, who was in bed at the time of the crash at 11.10pm on Tuesday.
Her son Simon, also 23 and a Tamworth College student, was heading towards the lounge when he heard a bang and saw bricks smashing through the lounge door of the detached family home at East Lodge, Tamworth Road, Lichfield.
Mother-of-three Mrs Lewis added: “It sounded like the boiler had blown up, then I heard Simon screaming ‘mum come downstairs’. Jake, who’d been sitting on the sofa with his laptop, was covered in dust and cuts and bruises after being hit on the head with bricks.
“I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My husband pulled the couple out of the car because he said it sounded like it was going to go up in flames. I keep looking at the car and the rubble and I’m just amazed we are still here.”
Mr Ashbolt was taken to Good Hope Hospital with a 32-year-old woman and 35-year-old man who were in the Mitsubishi.
The Birmingham Mail spoke to a 32-year-old woman, from Lichfield, who had been in the car, but did not want to be named, at the scene yesterday. She had cuts and bruises to her face, and the man was walking with a limp. She said: “It’s an absolute disaster, absolutely horrendous. Luckily no-one was seriously hurt.”
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “Clearly this had the potential to be an extremely serious incident and it’s fortunate no-one was seriously hurt.” A Staffordshire Police investigation has been launched.
The car was still embedded in the house yesterday but was expected to be removed by police after the property had been examined by a council building inspector. The crash closed the road for an hour.
A 32-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of driving while unfit through drink or drugs and released on police bail pending further inquiries.
