Woman, 100, woken by car in room

A 100-year-old woman had a miraculous escape when a car being driven by a drunk driver crashed into her bedroom.

Amy Austin was asleep when the BMW car went through the wall of Beech Court nursing home in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in the early hours of Saturday.

She escaped without a scratch but was surrounded by rubble, a ripped-off washbasin and radiator.

Police said a man aged in his 20s was taken to hospital and tested positive for alcohol.

'Big bang'

The car crashed through the gate at about 0100 BST and went through the front garden before smashing through the wall of the building and into Mrs Austin's bedroom.

The pensioner said: "There was a big bang and then it stopped and then there was another bang."

Mrs Austin's daughter-in-law, Iris, said her mother-in-law only seemed worried about one thing.

"I said: 'You had a shock' and she said: 'Yes, it was a terrible bang but I couldn't go back to sleep, I just couldn't go back'.

"That's was what worried her, that she just couldn't go back to sleep."

Until a few months ago, Mrs Austin shared her room with another woman who has since moved to another home.

The car ended up in the spot where her former roommate's bed had been.

Glynis Dunbar, matron of Beech Court, said: "I think it's shocked the staff, because it's what could have happened.

"Somebody else could have been killed, the home could have caught fire and it could have been much more serious."

Thames Valley Police said they were investigating whether the same car was involved in an earlier collision with a cyclist on Banbury Road in Oxford.

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