Family’s plea for crash barrier after car rams house causing damage
A family has appealed for traffic-calming measures to be introduced after a car crashed into their house.
Arun Kohli and his family were sleeping in their home, Great Western Way, Kingswinford, when they were woken by a loud bang. The 25-year-old said he had gone to investigate what had happened and found a black Honda Civic parked on the corner of the house.
He said: “We got woken up at around 3.08am because the whole house shook and as I looked out of my window, I saw a Honda Civic, which wasn’t mine, parked on the corner of the house.
"I saw the driver come out and I started talking to him through the window, with him obviously apologising for what had happened.”
No one was hurt during the incident, on February 28, although Mr Kohli said his parents and sister were a little shaken following the collision.
CCTV footage of the incident shows the car go off the road and collide with the corner of the house. Mr Kohli said it had not been the first time an incident had taken place around the estate.
“There’s been occasions when the lamp post has been hit outside our house and a number of times when a car ended up on the grass right by the house as they go speeding up Stallings Lane,” he said.
“I’m just happy that no one was hurt and it could have been a lot worse, as the car could have caught fire, or there could have been someone killed. We don’t know the extent of the damage yet but we’ve got a structural engineer surveyor coming to check the damage soon.”
Mr Kohli said he wanted some corrective action to be taken by Dudley Council and developers Taylor Wimpey and some preventative measures to be put in.
He said: “I’d like to see a rail put up on the greenery, maybe a crash barrier, as I have seen so many people speeding on this road. I don’t know about speed bumps, unless they put them right up near the roundabout, but they could work, but my ideal scenario is some proper railings.”
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: “We were called to reports of a car which crashed into a house on Great Western Way, Kingswinford. There were no injuries and no damage to the house.”
A Taylor Wimpey spokesman said the safety and wellbeing of residents in its developments was very important to the firm.
“We are sorry to hear about the recent road traffic accident which affected one of the properties on our Himley View development,” he said.
“We are pleased to hear no one was injured and we have been in close contact with the affected homeowner following the incident and have offered them support where we can.”
The spokesman also said the affected property did not have decorative metal railings outside, which was in line with the approved design of the property. The builder also said it did not own the land outside the property, in Stalling’s Lane, and the land was handed over to the Management Company in April 2019.
The spokesman also said any corrective action or traffic safety measures would require the relevant planning approval from Dudley Council.
However, Councillor Karen Shakespeare, cabinet member for public realm, said: “We haven’t been made aware of the incident. We’re happy to listen to any proposals the developer wishes to put forward.”
