A couple whose living room wall was demolished when a car ploughed into it have been told they face months of building work to restore their home.

Sandra Ball, 45, was horrified when a Vauxhall Nova crashed through her front room wall where her husband, Charles, had been sitting watching TV just moments before.

The car, driven by a young man who was uninjured, took a radiator off the wall flooding the room on Wednesday evening.

The couple's home, on a tight bend in Tickfield Avenue, Southend, has had its garden wall demolished 13 times in the last 20 years.

Mr Ball said: "We can't use the front room as there are industrial dryers in there for the next 21 days. After that, builders will assess the damage.

"We have to wait for the new brickwork to dry before a new window can go in and then for plaster to dry. I am told it could be months before it is all finished."

Mr Ball, 47, who was given early retirement from the HSBC bank, in Southend, because of stress partly brought on when a car knocked bricks from the front wall of their house in 2000, admitted he is still shocked by the incident.

PC Ray Jeffery, from Rayleigh road policing unit, said: "We are certainly going to have to look at how many accidents have happened there in the last two years to see if it warrants the attention of one of our traffic management officers."

Anyone with information should call 01268 775533.

Published Friday, August 1, 2003

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