Car smash like mini-earthquake

Judith Clare has told how she rushed from her living room at the rear of her chalet bungalow to front and found a car embedded in her porch.

A specialist team of firefighters from Battle had to shore up the porch and adjoining toilet with Acro jacks after Sunday evening's accident in Cooden Drive.

The driver of a Suzuki Jeep escaped injury when it struck a parked Ford Focus, bounced off and careered through the front garden of the property on the south side of the road.

Bexhill firefighters called in colleagues from Battle who form a specialist team trained to deal with structural collapse. They inserted two internal jacks and two external jacks to support the damaged porch and ground floor toilet.

The big cracks in the outside wall of the property give no indication of the extent of the damage inside.

Though the hallway has been cleared of debris, there is a large gap in the brickwork beside the jack which supports the lintel above the smashed glass by the front door.

Brick rubble and broken plaster still litter the floor of the toilet as Mrs Clare awaits the arrival of an insurance assessor.

Long cracks in the walls of the bathroom next to the toilet suggest that repair work will be extensive and expensive.

A number plate and part of the vehicle's bumper still lay by the battered and unusable front door. A squashed shrub shows where the car careered down the property's drive and across the central flower bed.

In her lounge, Mrs Clare said: "I was sitting where you are, watching something on television and I just heard this tremendous thump. The whole house shook.

"They had been talking on the television the other day about there having been another after-shock following the earthquake in China and I thought 'O gosh! I've had a mini-earthquake...'

"I went to investigate and I couldn't open my front door.

"I went into my bathroom and looked out of the window. There were a number of people grouped around a car which was embedded in the front of my home.

"A number of people came from over the road where they had been having a barbecue.

"The driver was still in the car. But the strange thing was that he was sitting in the passenger seat. My first thought was 'Where's the driver?' How he got there I don't know."

Summing up her reaction to the incident. Mrs Clare, who has lived in the property for seven years, said: "At first it was a mixture of 'Why me?' and sheer surprise.

"We live on a straight road, a long road with good visibility. It is not as if the house is on a corner. The house is not right on the road. There is a drive.

"I would not have thought I was at all vulnerable here."

A Rother building inspector called that evening to conduct a safety check on the property. "Another came yesterday to make sure everything was OK.

"The police have assured me that the driver was insured. I don't know what the repairs will cost yet. I am waiting for the insurance assessor to call.

"I would like to pay tribute to the police, the fire service and the solicitors. They have been very helpful."

Neighbour Roger Batey said: "My wife and I were playing cards. Suddenly we heard this bang. We thought it was fireworks. A few moments later Lynda said 'There was only the one bang. It can't have been fireworks. Perhaps we had better take a look.'

"We couldn't believe it. The car had gone straight down the drive without hitting the fence and gone into the house."

.