"Lucky to be alive" - that was the verdict of several Ongar Road residents after a dramatic accident outside their homes last Thursday.

The incident occurred near the junction with Doddinghurst Road at about 8am, as people were preparing to go to work.

A Mercedes van ploughed into a parked vehicle belonging to builder Nick Sharp and then into two cars in his drive, shunting one of them into his front porch.

The van then smashed into another parked car on the opposite side of the road, pushing it onto a post and into the front of a house.

Miraculously, no-one was hurt although police said the driver was very shocked. Mr Sharp had been loading tools onto his van and was just about to get in when it was hit by the Mercedes.

"If I'd been in the van I'd be dead," he told This Is Essex.

"It's a good job it was half-term because there would usually be kids walking along here to school. It shakes you up.

''I've had to take two days off work and one side of the porch has had to be demolished - still, it makes it stand out more!"

Daughter Jenna, 19, was about to leave the house when the accident occurred. "I was so frightened, it seemed like the whole house was falling down," she said. "It's all been a shock."

Andy Machin, a business banking manager at Lloyds-TSB in Romford, was also about to leave for work when he heard "an almighty smash" outside and found his Citroen car had been pushed onto a post and into the front of his house.

"It looks as though we will have to have some work done on the outside of the house, and the car is a write-off," he said. "It was not a very good start to the day, but the main thing is that nobody was actually hurt."

And Mr Machin, who is an elder of Brentwood Baptist Church added: "We believe that God works in the world in different ways. Somebody is watching us."

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