Car runs into old folks' club

Emergency services tidy up at the scene. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A man was travelling back from the doctor when he drove through a fence and into a building in East Tamaki yesterday.

No one was inside the Otara Senior Citizens Lounge on East Tamaki Rd when the Holden Senator crashed through its wooden fence and into the front wall about 11.30am.

The driver - 54-year-old local Faila Valeliano - was treated for a grazed hand and a bump on his head.

Emergency services directed traffic onto the inside lane, around the scene, while they waited for a tow truck.

Mr Valeliano said he had recently suffered a stroke, which caused his leg to seize up when taking off from the lights.

He then mistakenly accelerated, driving up over the kerb, across 10 metres of grass verge and through a wooden fence before coming to rest against the house, he said.

Otara Constable Gareth Hartley said police had not decided whether to lay charges. The driver had not been drinking.