A MOTHER is calling for action to improve the safety of a rat run road after a car smashed into their Saffron Walden home. A Vauxhall Cavalier careened into the side of a house on Victoria Avenue, taking out a garden wall, a gate and the family car befo

A MOTHER is calling for action to improve the safety of a "rat run" road after a car smashed into their Saffron Walden home.

A Vauxhall Cavalier careened into the side of a house on Victoria Avenue, taking out a garden wall, a gate and the family car before finally coming to a stop.

"It was like a bomb going off," said mother-of-two Alison Barnes, who had been asleep upstairs when the car struck at 1.30am on Friday.

"My husband ran downstairs and was greeted by headlights glaring at him and broken glass and bricks all over the floor.

"He saw someone in the car, but by the time he had got his shoes on they had disappeared."

This is not the first time a property on Victoria Avenue has been damaged by a car losing control on the road and now Mrs Barnes is calling for action to stop it from happening again.

"This is certainly the worst incident, but both our neighbours have been hit in the past," she said. "The road is used as a rat run by people going from Thaxted Road to South Road.

"People come flying down here and don't realise how sharp the corner is.

"We need something like warning signs or lighting to make this road safer or someone is going to get killed."

Mrs Barnes' family including her eight-month-old baby and her three-year-old child were all upstairs when the accident happened, but she believes it could have been far worse.

"Glass and bricks had been thrown across the living room," she said. "If this had happened during the day one of us could easily have been killed.

"There is no evidence that the driver tried to brake - he just drove straight into the house."

The cost of damage to the property is still being calculated but is likely to run into thousands of pounds. The family's Ford Focus took the brunt of the impact and was spun into the road, a garden wall and gate were knocked down and the front window of the house was smashed in.

The incident is being investigated by officers from the Dunmow Road Policing Unit. Anyone with information should contact PC Nigel Taplin on 01371 871116.