Lucky escape after car hits house

The driver escaped unharmed. Picture by Robin Drury

A woman has told how she escaped injury when a car ploughed into the front of her house damaging gas pipes and knocking out the electricity supply.

Hannah Drury was in her bedroom on Flatgate, in Howden, just before 0600 BST when a Ford Focus car hit her house before flipping onto its roof.

The 42-year-old car driver from Hull was also unhurt in the accident.

Ms Drury said it was only when she ran outside that she realised her house had been badly damaged in the accident.

I was upset at first but now I'm getting around to thinking, you know, it'll get fixed, it's only bricks and mortar Hannah Drury

Hannah Drury said she had been getting ready for work when she heard a loud bang and went to see what had happened.

"I looked out of the window to find the car flipped upside down.

"At the time I didn't actually know that he had crashed into my house."

She said her first concern had been for the driver of the car, but the severity of the damage to her own house was obvious as she surveyed the scene.

"I came downstairs and went up to him and asked him if he was alright, then I saw that he'd actually gone straight into my house, and that's when it sort of hit me," Ms Drury said.

"At the time I was more bothered about him than me, and he was more bothered about me."

'No power'

She said her understanding of the accident sequence was the vehicle hit the kerb first, then struck a lamppost before hitting her neighbour's house and her own.

"I was upset at first but now I'm getting around to thinking, you know, it'll get fixed, it's only bricks and mortar."

Ms Drury said structural engineers had deemed the house unsafe and she had not been allowed to returned to the premises.

"The car hit the part of the wall housing the gas and electricity meters and so there is currently no power supply to the property."