MUM-OF-TWO Kim Martin said her family is lucky to be alive after a pensioner crashed a car into her house in Bradford on Avon yesterday – just inches away from where she was making her children dinner.

Mrs Martin, 38 of Southleigh, said she was in her kitchen when she heard the bang of a blue Peugeot 206, driven by an 83-year-old woman, plunging into the side of her house.

“The girls were upstairs when I was cooking their tea and they were just sat on their bed as usual when it happened which was about two foot above where the car crashed,” she added.

“I turned around to my right to put something on the side and that is when I heard the bang. I thought a cupboard had hit the side or come off and I didn’t realise that a car had come through the wall.

“I jumped out of the way because I think something touched my leg and I didn’t even turn around to see what had happened because the girls were screaming upstairs so I ran up there.”

Mrs Martin, along with her husband Carl and daughters Lydia, seven, and Freya, four, said they didn’t have a clue about what happened until seven minutes later they went outside to find the car submerged into the side of their house.

Officers from Wiltshire Police attended the scene around 5.30pm along with an ambulance crew who tended to the pensioner who was stuck in the car.

It is believed she lost control while turning around at the top of the steep road before launching from a mount in a garden into the family home.

Two fire crews from Trowbridge attended, along with one from Melksham, to stabilise the car with their Heavy Rescue Unit by assisting paramedics who rescued the woman through the car boot.

She was later taken to the Royal United Hospital in Bath with hip and back injuries.

The family, who have recently had an extension finished to the affected area of the house, said their neighbours helped out straight away – many not knowing they were still inside the property.

Mrs Martin added: “We live in a quiet cul-de-sac and the last thing you would expect is a car to crash into the side of your house. I think we’ll be in shock for a while.

“I haven’t been downstairs to see the carnage and I am scared to see what is there. Amazingly no one was hurt and I hope the lady is all right.”

They are now working with the insurance company to look at repair work to the house but paid thanks to the emergency services who attended the scene.

Mrs Martin also hopes the incident raises awareness to drivers of automatic cars, particularly the elderly, to show the dangers of using the accelerator by mistake.