Oh no, my home..

The vehicle careered off Longford Road, smashed into Kate Collins's car, pushed it into the front bay of her house and shunted it across into the front garden of her neighbour.

The force of the collision completely demolished the 6ft-long dividing wall and left some 3ft of Ms Collins's side wall on the ground. Her bay window and brickwork also suffered some damage.

'There was this loud bang and the house shook,' she explained.

'Bits of debris hit the front bedroom window on the first floor.

'I was frightened to look to see what had happened because I thought the van would be through the front bay.'

The collision has left single mum Ms Collins, a nurse with children aged five and ten, out of pocket.

The 2006 Peugeot 206 car she bought for 8,000 two months ago was a write-off.

Repairing the front wall will be costly because the pair of semi-detached houses are grade two listed buildings from the 18th century. Any work has to be done to exacting standards to match their historic status.

The crash happened just three doors away from the house where a car went through the front wall into a living room and almost claimed the lives of two children playing there in February 2005.

Safety measures of kerbside bollards and road markings were installed along Longford Road after that collision

But Ms Collins (39) said more needed to be done to protect the properties and lives of those who lived along the busy route to and from the town centre.

'This road needs sorting out. There are too many flats and not enough parking spaces for a start.

'I don't know how someone didn't die from this accident.'

Her neighbours, Phyl and George Goodheart, have probably lived in the road longer than anyone.

They have seen the level of traffic and the number of parked cars soar since they moved in 42 years ago.

Mr Goodheart (84) said the road should be one-way from the north.

'The conditions along here are very bad with the danger of accidents and the speed of the vehicles. The policemen who came were astounded how fast the cars were going,' he said.

The officers even booked three motorists for speeding while they were attending to the accident.

It occurred at 4.15am last Thursday.

Ms Collins couldn't get out of her front door because her car had been pushed out of its parking space by the van. Its engine was still running and, to heighten her fears, smoke was coming out of the bonnet.

Ms Collins moved into the house in May 2006. Last week's crash was not her first experience of Longford Road's hazards. A motorcyclist came off his bike only seven days before.

'I want to move out,' she said. 'It would be different if they sort out the road but it is dangerous living here.'

Nearby resident and former county councillor Michael Jones said: 'The only thing that is going to stop speeding motorists using Longford Road as some kind of racetrack is for the traffic calming measures to be introduced that I and others have been calling for over the past two years, since the last accident.

"The council must act now and stop dragging its feet, or we will be looking at more damage to property on this road, or worse, fatalities.

'The residents of Longford Road and the surrounding area deserve better when their safety is at stake.'