Family's narrow escape after car crashes into house

Jul 19 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

A FATHER yesterday told how he feared his baby would be killed when a car smashed through the wall of his house.

The tot was sleeping in a cot just feet from where the Mercedes crashed into the Wearside property.

Joe Poulter, 40, was in bed at his home in St Mark’s Road, in Millfield, Sunderland, when he heard a bang and felt shaking. At first he it thought was an earthquake.

Then through the falling debris and dust he saw the headlights of a Mercedes E200 shining into the downstairs bedroom.

The vehicle is believed to have been in collision with a Vauxhall Vectra at around 2.20am causing it to career through the front wall of the house.

With his five-month-old son Liam sleeping in a cot at the foot of the bed and his six-year-old son Jack sleeping in a room next door, he feared for their safety.

Mr Poulter, who has lived at the property for eight years with his partner Angela Fox, a 38-year-old veterinary nurse, last night described his frantic efforts to reach his children.

He said: “It was early in the morning and we were asleep. Bright lights just appeared in the room and there was a lot of dust and flying debris.

“We realised it was a car so we just started checking the kids and making sure they were okay. I was terrified it was leaking petrol and there might have been an explosion.

“Jack was in the front room that wasn’t hit and so he escaped unscathed, but Liam was in the room with us and that was the room where the car came in.

“We could have died. The cot was really near the wall and it could have been crushed so easily. We had thought about moving it the week before to next to the window; we are just so lucky.”

An ambulance arrived soon after the incident, but the four occupants escaped with just scratches and bruises from falling rubble.

Meanwhile police confirmed witnesses saw a number of males fleeing the area and a 16-year-old boy was arrested for failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

Mr Poulter said: “It’s really traumatic. You are sound asleep in your own home and you hear this bang and you don’t even know what it is. It was like an earthquake.

“I looked up and saw no one in the car, just two open doors. Whoever was in the car must have left the scene.

“We’ve had to move out while they get the house secure and I’m living with my mam. I’m very annoyed and quite angry about it all. I don’t know what caused it to end up crashing into the house, but to run away from the scene of an accident is just disgusting. They didn’t even check to make sure everyone was okay – we could have been dead.”

Police said the family suffered minor injuries as a result of falling debris.