Shocked Corby mum calls for safety barriers after van ploughs into her home

A Great Oakley mum has called for safety barriers to be erected on the exit of a busy Corby roundabout after the third vehicle in 13 years demolished part of their property.

Most of the seven-strong multi-generational Marsh-Robins family household had already gone to bed in their home in Pound Lane, that backs on to the Oakley Road/ Lewin Road/Danesholme Road roundabout, when the crash took place on Friday night (March 26).

Graphic designer Claire Marsh was still downstairs playing a computer game in the conservatory and her mum, Tricia Robins, was sitting in the next room when they were startled to hear a loud crash outside the house just before midnight.

She said: "I heard a horrific bang and thought 'oh my goodness' and went outside and jumped up on to the bike shed. I could see a big blue van - it was carnage.

"Mum called 999 and I asked the driver if they were alright."

The van had ploughed through the family's colourful lockdown rainbow of hope mural and coloured light display on their boundary fence that runs along Oakley Road - just a metre from where the mum-of two had been.

Claire, 41, said: "This is not the first time this has happened to us. Since we have lived in this house, we have had two other drivers crash into the wall that surrounds our drive.

"In that time our next door neighbour also had his wall destroyed. We have also witnessed several near misses, two in one week where they knocked down a lamp-post opposite our drive wall."

The van crash destroyed the fence, bikes and other items stored between the fence and the family home.

In the previous incident the family had two cars written off.

She said: "He only missed the side of the house and the conservatory where I was sitting by about one metre. Our rainbow of hope was also destroyed. I kept saying you destroyed my rainbow.

"We have asked Northamptonshire County Council and Highways Agency for barriers to be installed around the edge of the road to protect not only our house but the people that use the grass verge as a walkway to access the underpass.

"We have not been successful, our local councillor has also petitioned them to no avail. All the other exits off the roundabout have metal railings, so it doesn't make sense that we don't have a railing or metal barrier.

"We can quite often hear screeching of car tyres and I often wait for the impact. They zoom down past Morrisons and because there's a slight curve they end up going over the roundabout.

"We are the only side without barriers and we are the one that gets hit. We are even willing to put some money towards the barriers. Thankfully it was only bikes that were damaged but it will put up our insurance premiums.

"A metre difference and the whole house could have collapsed."

A spokesman for Northants Police said: "The RTC happened in Pound Close, Great Oakley, at about 11.50pm when a blue Vauxhall Vivaro crashed into a garden.

"A 41-year-old man was arrested at the scene of suspicion of drink driving. He has since been released under investigation pending further enquiries."