By DANIEL TRAN: dtran@mmpgroup.com.au
A DANDENONG North woman could have died when a car ploughed into
her bedroom if the walls had not been double-brick, says her housemate.
Leanne Donaldson, 40, was asleep in her Brady Road home at 12.30am
on Monday last week, when a car left the road and crashed into her
master bedroom.
“The next thing I know, I had a pair of headlights staring at me,” she told the Journal.
The impact demolished a wall in the house but its thickness stopped the vehicle from hitting Ms Donaldson.
“That double brick has saved her life because if it was just
singles, it would have gone straight through over the top of her,”
housemate Warren Barker said.
Mr Barker, 48, heard several loud bangs, which are believed to be
the car hitting the property’s brick fence and Mr Barker’s car.
It then hit the house with a “boom”, covering everything in dust.
“When he hit the house, it was like it exploded,” Mr Barker said.
He said he found Ms Donaldson screaming, her bed surrounded by
bricks. As she called triple-0, Mr Barker scrambled to the car and,
reaching in from the passenger side, put it into park.
He told the driver to stay in the car and took his wallet and keys which he later handed to police.
Senior Constable Matthew Lavery-Stephens, of Dandenong crime
investigation unit, said a man in his late 30s had been charged over the
incident. He was remanded in custody.
Structural engineers are examining the house. Cracks have appeared
in the spare bedroom, so Ms Donaldson is sleeping on a mattress in the
living room.
Ms Donaldson, an administrator at a city accounting firm, has
lived in Brady Road for five years. The road has a 60km/h speed limit,
which she described as appropriate.
“[But] people certainly don’t do 60km/h along this road,” she
said. “Even motorbikes and cars fly, probably because it’s so straight.
We were only saying the other night that maybe there should be speed
bumps put in.’’
Mr Barker added: “[Speed humps] become annoying but they are better than having people drive over the top of you.”
