By Tanya Steele
After allegedly crashing into the front yard of a person’s house a Ferntree Gully man has had his driving licence suspended and is expected to be charged on summons with drink driving offences
A Tecoma resident had the fright of her life on Thursday 5 September when his car crashed into her front yard, destroying her fence.
A police media spokesperson said that the driver was a 49-year-old man from Ferntree Gully and he underwent a preliminary breath test at the scene before undertaking an evidentiary breath test and returning an alleged result of BAC of 0.125.
Resident Samantha from Tecoma had just gone to bed at around 11pm when shortly after she said she heard screeching followed by a loud bang.
“There’s pickets everywhere – it looks like a war scene,” she said.
“I thought they’re not going to stop and then I thought maybe the driver had hit the power pole out the front.”
“If you see the skid marks and where the car was, I can’t believe he didn’t come through the house.”
A black vehicle had crashed into her front yard and Samantha said she initially jumped out of bed and ran out her front door and had a look, and couldn’t see anything.
“All of a sudden, this man came around the side and then I turned and looked and saw the car in my front property, like a metre away from the window where I watch TV.”
Samantha said she went inside to get dressed and when she came out the man was allegedly sitting out the front.
“I thought, am I dreaming? Did I just see a car in my front yard? I came back outside and he was just sort of sitting on my front area,” she said.
Samantha said she then rang triple zero and asked for the police to come straight away and sat with the man as they waited.
“He just kept saying he has no insurance and that he was just overtaking a car and lost control,” she said.
“And I just said, how the hell are they going to get the car out of my front yard? In Belgrave, we live on slopes.”
The police arrived and took charge of the scene and breathalysed the man and Samantha said they said to the man that he was well over the limit and could he accompany them to the station.
“At that point, they just left me,” she said.
A police media spokesperson said police attended the crash in Tecoma on Thursday 5 September.
“It is understood a car crashed into the fence at a property on Burwood Highway about 11.45pm – there were no injuries,” they said.
“His license was immediately suspended, and he is expected to be charged on summons with drink driving offences.”
Around 2am Friday 6 September the tow truck driver arrived to pull the car out of the yard and Samantha said it broke the fence up more as the car was towed.
“I feel a bit lost, I was worried about the man – I can’t believe he was ok,” she said.
“It could have been really bad, for me the burden is I now have an insurance bill.”
