Runaway car crashes into house

By Ted Jeory

A STARTLED son has relived the horror of seeing his mother sitting in the front of her runaway car after it had ploughed through their garden wall, careered across a main road and smashed into the front of a neighbour's house.

Philip Couzens, 41, said he was relieved no-one had been killed by the incident, in which his neighbour was hit on the head by flying debris.

The man had been in the front room of his Colchester house with his son when Ilse Couzens' car shot across Ipswich Road and rammed into his home at about 10am yesterday.

The neighbour, also 41, and his son, five, were taken to by ambulance to Colchester General Hospital, along with Mrs Couzens, 70, but none of their injuries were life-threatening.

Mr Couzens said he had been in bed when he had heard what had sounded like a dumper tipping rubble in their driveway.

It was the sound of his front garden wall collapsing after his terrified mother had been unable to stop the family's Mazda 4x4.

"I was lying there and I heard the car start, but I thought my mother was just going to move it to unload some goods," said Mr Couzens.

"But then I heard a screech and the sound of rubble being dumped, so I leapt out of bed, dressed and saw this great big hole in the garden wall. Then I looked across the road and saw the car in someone's house.

"I got dressed and ran straight across. My mother was trying to get out of the car - she was all shaken. I told her to stay inside and wait for an ambulance."

Mr Couzens said his mother was recovering at home last night and was trying to recall what had happened.

Essex Ambulance Service operations manager, John Nicholls, said: "If the 4x4 had struck the house wall a foot the other way, it would've gone straight through the bay window and probably killed someone."

Essex Police said they were investigating the cause of the accident, but added it was believed Mrs Couzens may have got her foot stuck on the accelerator pedal.

ted.jeory@eadt.co.uk