A woman has escaped death in her Kyneton home after standing up from her armchair moments before a car ploughed through her living room at 5pm last Friday.
A 26-year-old male from Kyneton was driving down Sturt Street and failed to give way at an intersection when he crashed into a ute being driven by a 50-year-old Malmsbury woman on Victoria Street.
The collision caused the offending vehicle to spin out and crash into the front fence of the residential home, while the ute hit a gutter, sending it airborne into the living room of the house.
Home owner Sue Archer said her husband Michael called to advise he would be home soon so she stood up “a split second” before the car crashed through the wall to where she had been seated.
She was initially unsure of what had happened and saw car debris flying over the roof and into the backyard.
“I thought, ‘it’s five o’clock, I won’t start watching the news. I’ll go out and get the rice prepped’, you know?” Ms Archer said.
“I walked four or five steps and that was it”.
“If I was here [sitting in the chair], I wouldn’t have had time to move. But you don’t think about that. I think that part of it, it’s all just sinking in, but I go, ‘no, you’re here’”.
“We had photos on the wall, our children’s wedding photos, mum’s pamphlet from her funeral. As I’m pulling the rocks up, I’m going, ‘Oh my God, there’s something else’. I was most upset my mother’s photos were under the rubble.”
Bricks from the chimney prevented the car’s force from crashing further into the residential home.
Michael Archer said their chimney stopped the full force of the car from destroying the rest of the house.
“The only thing that stopped [the car] from going any further was the chimney here, which is now totally gone,” he said.
“The car smashed the power meter but never touched the gas meter. It flew over the top of it. So in order to pull the car out, they had to take the gas meter away first because the car would have dropped on top of the gas meter to get it out. The gas man said to me, ‘if that car had hit this, you wouldn’t have a home. It would have blown up'”.
“And our stumps, everything has to be fixed because the house was moved. It’s been shunted. The cupboard doors flew open and broke casserole dishes… a lot of knickknacks. There’s dust everywhere.”
The SES installed a temporary tarp and a recovery team came in the following day to install a temporary wall. The couple are currently without both gas or electricity but are hoping to have it reinstalled in the coming days.
Police, paramedics and firefighters attended the scene. The passenger of the offending vehicle lay on the ground for about half an hour while paramedics treated him for injuries. He was then removed by a stretcher and taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital for further assessment.
The offending male driver was processed by police but charges are yet to be made.
The investigating officer said he was taken to the Kyneton hospital for a blood test as part of the investigation, and a toxicology report will confirm if drugs or alcohol were involved.
The victim in the ute was treated at the scene but didn’t require further medical assistance.
A man is covered with a blanket to keep him warm while a paramedic tends to his injuries.
