AN investigation is under way in a Suffolk village today after a car became embedded in a house after being in collision with a marked police vehicle.

AN investigation is under way in a Suffolk village today after a car became embedded in a house after being in collision with a marked police vehicle.

The incident happened at around 2.15pm today on the A134 Sudbury Road in Great Whelnetham, near Bury St Edmunds.

The probe comes just a few days after another investigation was launched into a crash involving a police car while on a 999 call in Saxmundham last Thursday.

In Great Whelnetham, it is believed the police car was stationary at the junction with Stanningfield Road and had officers inside when it was in collision with a green Ford Ka.

The Ford ended up in the side of a cottage, sustaining damage to a wall which was due to be assessed by a structural engineer to determine its safety.

There was a person inside the house, but they were unhurt. The driver of the Ford and the police officers also avoided injuries.

The full extent of the damage to the vehicles is not yet clear, but both needed to be towed away from the scene.

Peter Royce, a villager in Great Whelnetham, arrived on scene shortly after the crash to find a hive of police activity.

He said: “There were about five police cars in attendance and investigators on scene.

“The police car was facing towards the Sudbury Road, well behind the 'give way' markings. Quite how the Ford ended up where it did, I don't know.”

An investigation is now being carried out by Suffolk Constabulary's road policing unit.

The two incidents come after it emerged that Suffolk police's vehicles were involved in accidents at a rate of nearly one a day between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009.

Figures released earlier this year show that the constabulary claimed �145,000 on its motor insurance during that period.

Despite the amounts claimed, the payouts were half the amount spent on the force's motor insurance policy, which cost �281,369 for its 452 vehicles.