Photo: MEN / MSN.com
An elderly driver from Middleton, U.K., has had the scare of a lifetime and will have to save up to cover damages, after he crashed his car into his neighbor’s house, completely ruining the front of the building.
The man, said to be in his 80s, was trying to back out of his own driveway in his white Vauxhall Grandland X Turbo, MEN reports. As he did so, he hit a tree and supposedly panicked, which made him lose all control of the vehicle and smash into the house.
“Images from the scene, on Compton Way, showed the front of house completely destroyed following the incident,” MEN says. “The bay window was knocked out of the wall, with debris strewn across the front garden of the property. Thankfully, the owners of the house were not in at the time.”
When first responders arrived on the scene, the car was still wedged deep in the house, with only the front sticking out. The driver was inside and firefighters had to come him out of the wreck. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, but he is also understandably in shock.
“He hit the tree with his car and it seems like he then got into a bit of a panic,” a neighbor says of the accident. “I think the car is an automatic. So maybe he's put it in ‘go’ instead of reverse and then ending up falling down the driveway and hitting the house.”
There is no age limit for drivers in the U.K., as long as they pass their yearly medical checkups. However, the question of whether such a limit was needed was raised again after Prince Philip’s crash earlier this year, when he T-boned an oncoming Kia with his Range Rover at an intersection.
Though he eventually agreed to give up his driver’s license, the Prince insisted that he was a competent driver despite his age (he’s 97, btw), blaming the crash on being temporarily blinded by the sun.
“Images from the scene, on Compton Way, showed the front of house completely destroyed following the incident,” MEN says. “The bay window was knocked out of the wall, with debris strewn across the front garden of the property. Thankfully, the owners of the house were not in at the time.”
When first responders arrived on the scene, the car was still wedged deep in the house, with only the front sticking out. The driver was inside and firefighters had to come him out of the wreck. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, but he is also understandably in shock.
“He hit the tree with his car and it seems like he then got into a bit of a panic,” a neighbor says of the accident. “I think the car is an automatic. So maybe he's put it in ‘go’ instead of reverse and then ending up falling down the driveway and hitting the house.”
There is no age limit for drivers in the U.K., as long as they pass their yearly medical checkups. However, the question of whether such a limit was needed was raised again after Prince Philip’s crash earlier this year, when he T-boned an oncoming Kia with his Range Rover at an intersection.
Though he eventually agreed to give up his driver’s license, the Prince insisted that he was a competent driver despite his age (he’s 97, btw), blaming the crash on being temporarily blinded by the sun.
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