'Lucky' escape for couple after car smashes into conservatory

Alan Harvey usually spends his mornings in his conservatory drinking coffee and listening to music - but got up instead to bring in his wheelie bins.

The silver Honda Civic smashed through a garden wall and into the side of the house in Francis Street, coming within feet of the lounge.

Alan and his wife Iris told how they heard a 'massive bang' as a neighbour's car ploughed through their wall.

Much of their conservatory has been reduced to rubble by the crash.

The driver is believed to have fallen ill at the wheel before the accident at 10.50am on Tuesday. He was not seriously hurt but was taken to hospital to be checked over.

Mr Harvey said: "Very often I sit in the conservatory and listen to music with a coffee in the morning.

"But it was bin day and I had gone out to fetch the bins. I had just finished when it happened.

"Any other day and I might have been in there. Everything has been squashed up in there so I could have lost my legs at the very least."

Mrs Harvey was upstairs at the time and said she initially had no idea what had happened.

It wasn't until her husband went outside to check that they realised the car was in their garden.

The 73-year-old grandmother then went into her front room when the extent of the damage became clear.

She said: "I heard this terrific bang. I didn't know what had happened.

"Then I looked into the conservatory and the car was there."

Mr Harvey, aged 71, who has lived at the property with his wife for 30 years, said: "I heard the revving of a car and then a big bang.

"The car was literally half way in. The brick wall was wedged on the bonnet and the windscreen.

"It didn't go through, otherwise he could have been in trouble.

"It was a bit of a shock. I said to Iris if my blood pressure was low in the morning it's not now.

Crews from West Bromwich Fire Station arrived to recover the damaged car and make sure the house was safe.

"The house is secure but the fire brigade has told us not to go in there and try to move anything," Mr Harvey said.

The damaged conservatory will now be assessed by the couple's insurers and though the accident has caused them a headache they said the result could have been much worse.

Mr Harvey said: "If it had been further over it could have gone through the lounge, it was fortunate it came through the conservatory. Six feet to the right and it is in the lounge.

"It has gone through two walls. The lounge is only a single wall - we would have had real problems."

Mrs Harvey said: "It was just a shock but the main thing is nobody was hurt."