Tiane (left) and Roi Hoskins in their bedroom where the Subaru crashed. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Two Otaki boys were left covered in debris but escaped injury after a car ploughed through their bedroom wall in the early hours of yesterday.
The car came to rest millimetres from the sleeping boys, and the impact sent furniture flying across the room, fence posts on to
the roof and concrete slabs into neighbouring properties.
Sergeant John May said the crash happened at 3.30am when a speeding Subaru Impreza missed a bend and skidded about 45m towards Tipene Hoskins' home.
The vehicle crashed through a concrete retaining wall and then ploughed through the boys' bedroom wall.
"I faintly remember hearing a loud noise and I woke up to hear my kids screaming," said Mr Hoskins.
"My first thought was to go and check on them but it didn't register until I turned on the light and there was a car parked in there. It was right next to their bed."
Mr Hoskins said that by the time he got to the bedroom his sons, Tiane, 10, and Roi, 9, were bewildered and struggling to work out what had happened.
Roi had a desk on top of him and Tiane was surrounded by debris.
"They were alive by millimetres," Mr Hoskins said.
"I just picked them up, hugged them and checked if they were moving everything and got them out of the room."
Mr Hoskins said the three occupants of the car told his sons they were "really sorry", but their contrition appeared to be short-lived.
"But when I came outside all they were arguing about was who was going to take the blame."
The 24-year-old driver was taken to Palmerston North Hospital. The extent of his injuries is not known.
The front-seat passenger suffered a minor head injury and was lucky not to be impaled by part of a windowsill that went through the windscreen.
A back seat passenger was not hurt.
The Hoskins have been renting the home for about three months and were yesterday waiting to hear whether they would be allowed to stay.
Police believe speed and alcohol were factors in the crash.
Mr Hoskins said his sons were doing well yesterday and enjoying the opportunity to have a day off school.
"They are really resilient kids."
- Additional reporting NZPA
