'I'm scared to use kitchen as cars crash into it - a 4x4 ended up in the lounge'
A mum is afraid to use the kitchen of her family home as cars keep crashing through the brick walls - including one terrifying incident which saw a 4x4 lodged in her dining room.
Laura Lines, 44, her husband Daniel, 49, and their two daughters have witnessed more than 100 crashes on the road outside in the 10 years they've lived in their home, which sits in a road called Crooked Mile in Nazeing, Essex.
Sitting very close to the edge of the main road, their home is right in the path of disruption whenever a car loses control - and the external and internal damage is often devastating.
The family's three dogs have nearly been crushed on several occasions. But the most serious incident came recently when a huge car crashed straight through the wall and into her kitchen - leaving their family dining table, which they were sitting at just hours before, in pieces.
Laura, who runs a security business with her husband, told The Mirror: "We're right on a junction, the junction continually has accidents with people pulling out and not looking at what they are doing.
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Laura and her family are living in fear (Laura Lines)
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"The road's called the Crooked Mile, our house is the only one that is set on the road, all the others are like set back, we've lived here for ten years and had no problems other than witnessing problems out on the road.
"There's been about 100 that we've witnessed, easily. But the last two really affected us and our property."
While Laura, who is mum to Lillie, 16, and Honor, nine, has witnessed many crashes, two of them left her particularly shaken.
The first, on October 30, damaged the structure of her home and in the heat of the moment Laura feared she might find her three dogs, Kenso, Mabel, and Mumford, crushed under a car.
Laura is lucky she went to bed early, otherwise she could have been seriously hurt (Laura Lines)
She may need to redecorate now (Laura Lines)She continued: "The first one was the one that came into the kitchen. I was laying in bed and I heard this screeching and skidding of the car. Because it's a usual occurrence on this road you just brace yourself and look to see where the accident is, but then I felt the bang and felt the impact. My bed is above where the car came in.
"My house shakes when lorries go past anyway, but I felt a bang and said to my husband, 'that's in the house'. I just knew from what I felt.
"It took the wall down in the kitchen, my kitchen window was hanging out, it was so scary.
"I came flying down the stairs because the adrenaline kicked in, I struggled to open the door to the kitchen because when the car had come in it had shunted everything across.
"We've got a wall that's adjoining that has got double doors leading in the lounge, it moved all of the framework, I managed to pull it, my dogs have their bed area in the kitchen and I was worried about them. I didn't know what I was going to walk into.
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They'd barely got over the first crash when a second car hit their house (Laura Lines)
Luckily they have house insurance (Laura Lines)"I walked through the rubble barefoot to make sure everything and everyone was ok. The dogs were ok thankfully.
"It was horrific, it was awful - luckily we had gone to bed early, it happened at 9.40pm. Normally we would have been sat in the kitchen.
"All of our furniture was ruined, the dining table, the chairs, I had shoes and trainers that were covered under the rubble, the structure of the house was damaged - the fire brigade had to put in this wooden structure to hold the roof up.
"All the building work is being done by the contents insurance and they've not yet priced everything. I'm very glad I had insurance, I presume that gets claimed off his car insurance but I'm not sure - I don't know how it works."
The next big crash came just a few months later on Thursday, January 19, just as Laura was getting her kids ready for school.
Laura is now calling for the council to install a speed camera (Laura Lines)She added: "In the morning I was about to let my dogs out to go to the toilet and getting my kids ready for school and I heard skidding again.
"I heard a massive bang, the dogs started barking outside and I looked at the CCTV camera. I couldn't work out what was happening so I looked out my window and saw a car was in my garden.
"It took down three fence panels and smashed a concrete flower bed which is behind the kennel, luckily that broke the impact else the car would have gone into the dog kennel.
"It just missed the house, it hit just before the building started.
"I fear that it will happen again, the road is 50 mph which is far too fast for this road. There's not enough monitoring of the speed. At night time I hear the cars flying past and they're doing 70-80mph if not more.
"I'm worried about my kids, of course, 100 per cent - we are all nervous wrecks, we can't enjoy our house any more. I try not to think about it but when you hear a loud noise you panic.
"If I'm sitting in the house, I think I don't want to sit here any more - I've put my sofa against the back wall and I only like to sit there.
"I think it's the trauma from the whole thing - if I hear the skidding my heart starts racing and I think, 'not again'. It makes me jump.
"The speed is a big issue, people driving recklessly, it's a notoriously dangerous road - there have been five or six fatalities on this road since I've been here, it's gone through my mind that if I hadn't gone to bed early that could be the situation we were dealing with now, it could have been a lot different. "
Laura has now launched a petition to have a speed camera installed on Crooked Mile, as she believes it could save lives.
To sign the petition visit Change.org here.
A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: "We are aware of this and have advised the resident to speak to their local councillor who can raise any issues to the Local Highways Panel (LHP). The LHP will then review the area and decide what, if any, further action can be taken."
Nazeing Parish Council have been contacted for comment.
Following the first crash, Kaywan Anwar, 45, of Stoneleigh Close, Waltham Cross was arrested and charged with failing to provide a specimen and failing to cooperate with a preliminary test.
He was banned from driving for three years when he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on December 5, given 300 hours of unpaid work, and told to pay £219 of costs and surcharges.
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