Woman rescued and taken to hospital after crashing car into house in Portchester
A WOMAN who ploughed her car into a house was rescued by fire crews amid fears the home ‘could have collapsed at any moment’.
The motorist was driving in Caer Peris View, Portchester, when she lost control of the vehicle and crashed through the front room of the property at 11.19pm on Wednesday.
Nobody inside the home was hurt, fire crews said, but the female motorist was left moaning in pain and in need of rescue.
Two fire crews from Cosham were joined by two from Portchester, one from Fareham and urban search and rescue specialists from Eastleigh to tackle the ‘complex’ operation.
Cosham crew manager Stephen Alchin was among those involved in the rescue.
He said: ‘This could have been quite a dangerous situation. The building could have collapsed at any time so we had to get her out as quickly as possible.’
He added: ‘The car was embedded in the side of the house. We don’t know how it happened. She must have been going up the hill and lost control.’
Firefighters first had to remove destroyed fence panelling from the crash site before slicing through both the driver and passenger doors.
At each stage, crews had to watch out for a shift in the building which could have toppled as parts of the car were cut away.
The woman was eventually pulled out of the car safely on a spinal board before being transported to Queen Alexandra Hospital by ambulance.
The section of the Skew Road bridge over the M27, next to the crash site, was closed in both directions.
Hampshire police said that nobody had been arrested following last night’s incident.
Speaking of the crash, a spokeswoman added: ‘A Mercedes had collided with a house causing damage. No-one inside [the home] was injured and we assisted in taking the residents to safety.
‘Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service attended and extracted the driver, a woman in her 30s, from the vehicle. She was taken to hospital with minor injuries.’
South Central Ambulance Service said the driver had a lucky escape, with a spokesman adding: ‘She was assessed and appeared to have escaped any obvious injuries but was taken to the Queen Alexandra Hospital for additional assessment there.’
Crew manager Alchin praised the work of all the emergency services teams involved in last night’s rescue.
He said: ‘It was an excellent example of joint working. We all worked really, really well together.’
The homeowner declined to comment about the crash.