Man taken to hospital after van crashes through wall into West Bromwich family's front room
A man was taken to hospital after a van careered off a road and smashed into a house's front room in West Bromwich.
He was among two people injured when the white box van veered off a bend at the junction of Clifford Road and Westbourne Road, Lyng, shortly after 2pm on Saturday, badly damaging the front wall at the semi-detached house.
Grandmother Grace Scarlett, who was sitting on a settee in the front room at the time with her six-year-old granddaughter, was left with a bruised leg and painful eye as a result.
Mrs Scarlett, 52, said: "I'd been in the front garden with my granddaughter just before it happened. It was hot so we came inside to have cold drinks to cool down.
"The next thing I heard was a loud bang. I didn't know what it was, my leg was trapped between the coffee table and the fish tank which had been underneath the window.
"I was just screaming at first, but I calmed myself and dialled 999 on my mobile and they all came - the fire brigade, an ambulance and the police.
"The fire people came inside and they moved the coffee table so I could get up. The fish tank completely exploded and is in pieces. The ambulance checked me over. They told me to go the the hospital if my leg didn't feel better, which I did afterwards. I've been told it's not fractured, but a bit bruised.
"My left eye doesn't feel so good now, so I'm going to my GP's on Monday to get it checked.
"I didn't see the van driver at all. My cousin was standing outside and saw what happened. He said the van came down the road towards the bend and didn't make the right hand turn so it ended up in our front wall. It's a good job we'd come inside.
"The council came and propped up the front room and the wall for now on safety grounds.
"They did offer us temporary accommodation, but we decided to stay overnight. They said they will come back on Monday to carry out a safety assessment. They advised us to stay out of the room in the meantime."
The carer, who lives at the Sandwell Council-owned property, in Clifford Road, with husband Len, 82, and sons Theo, 19, and Demar, 28, said she will now be calling on the council to install a hump on the road close to the bend and bollards on the pavement to prevent a similar incident happening in future.
West Bromwich fire crews and West Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics attended, after reports that two people had been injured in the crash.
Crews took one man to hospital from the scene, suffering leg and face injuries.
