Car rams another into wall of Pode Hole house

A family had a lucky escape when a car was pushed through the wall of their South Holland home in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

A woman driving the car was transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, with serious injuries as a result of the crash which also caused a gas leak.

She was driving an orange Ford Focus which hit a parked VW Touren belonging to the family of a man killed on the same stretch of road at Pode Hole in 2012.

Cyclist Timothy Osborn was a hit-and-run victim and his body was found in a ditch five minutes from his Bourne Road home.

His father Stephen owns VW Touren that was hit and Timothy’s ashes were in the vehicle. “The box is crumpled but they’re fine. We have his ashes in all the vehicles we drive,” Stephen said.

The VW is the second of Mr Osborn’s vehicles to be struck on that stretch of road. He had a near miss earlier this year when his van was ploughed into by another motorist. He said that if his van had not been parked where it was he feared the car would have ploughed into his home and he had been sitting near the window at the time.

Mr Osborn has just finished repairing the vehicle which he used for his DJ set which raises money for charity.

On that occasion, in May, the road was closed for four hours.

On Monday night, Stephen had been DJing at a venue in Horncastle for the New Year celebrations when he received a call telling him what had happened during the last song of his set.

Stephen has long campaigned to make the stretch of road safer. After Timothy’s death, the speed limit was reduced from 50mph to 40mph but that has not been enough to quell the accidents, he can think of “at least half a dozen” recent major smashes near his house.

Stephen said he will continue to try to improve the safety of the road, especially as there are more young families with children living there now.

But the main factor, Stephen said, is down to drivers.

“There’s nothing wrong with the road,” he said. “If you take risks you’re going to have an accident.”

Stephen added: “We do genuinely feel for those injured and their families, they’re all victims too.”

Mr Osborn’s VW was pushed through the wall of a neighbours’ home and has been written off.

A couple and child were in the front room of their house at the time, but were fortunately not injured.

The impact also caused a gas leak and the road was closed for some time while engineers made the area safe and the damaged vehicles were recovered.

Some of Mr Osborn’s DJ equipment which had been in the car was also damaged by the impact.