A woman had been watching TV in her lounge seconds before a car smashed through the wall of her Hamilton house last night.
Robyn Wyber, 62, heard sirens blaring and immediately thought to get up from her couch and head to the back of the house.
The next moment there was a massive bang as the vehicle, whose driver had down a U-turn before an alcohol checkpoint, ploughed through the wall and she fell on her stomach on the hallway floor.
Wyber was shaken but escaped injury. Another person was taken to hospital in a moderate condition.
Meanwhile, Hamilton City Council has confirmed staff will meet with Wyber and neighbour Gary Houghton on Monday or Tuesday following the crashes.
Police say the car pulled a U-turn before an alcohol checkpoint prior to the incident. Photo / Belinda Feek
Family and friends are now rallying around Wyber as she comes to terms with what happened.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Brian Mourits said Wyber had been on edge ever since her next door neighbour - Gary Houghton - had a car plough through his house on Mother's Day in May last year.
His wife, Maureen, died just days later of a heart attack.
Mourits said Wyber was watching television last night when she heard the sirens. Since her neighbour's crash she would always instinctively move to the rear of the house.
However, this time she made it barely a few steps down her hallway when her unit was shaken by a massive bang.
Wyber told the Herald the impact shook her house so much that her manhole cover in her bathroom - at the rear of the house - also fell to the floor.
"I was just getting up to go to bed and because every time I hear sirens I stand back, just in case they don't make it round the corner. Then there was this almighty bang and I thought, 'Oh there's been an accident' and seen my curtains blow up. Apparently the cops were knocking on my door."
She doesn't recall much of the incident, just turning around after she'd fallen on the floor and seeing her curtains move.
She looked out a window and saw a car in Houghton's fence and thought her house was fine. It wasn't until police officers told her that a car had smashed into her unit that she realised what happened.
Mourits said a security guard was placed at the scene overnight, but Wyber hadn't been able to sleep.
Wyber wasn't sure what she'd now do, but Mourits said she hadn't felt safe in her own home since last year's crash.
He was contemplating setting up a crowd funding account to help Wyber with her insurance as her car had also been hit three times while parked in various parts of the city.
Waikato police Senior Sergeant Ray Malcolmson said police noticed a car do a U-turn near an alcohol checkpoint in Heaphy Tce, Claudelands about 11pm.
Officers attempted to pursue the car, however stopped due to the driver travelling at excessive speed. They later discovered the accident site when they reached the roundabout at Heaphy Tce and Clarkin Rd.
The car also clipped another vehicle on the way down Heaphy Tce, police said, hitting Houghton's front concrete fence.
The car went through her lounge. Photo / Supplied
"The car that was clipped has gone through a fence, before the offending vehicle has come to rest in the lounge room of another property," Malcolmson said.
"A woman sitting inside the lounge was shaken, but fortunately uninjured. The man whose car was hit wasn't seriously injured, but he was checked out at hospital."
A St John spokeswoman confirmed they transported one patient to Waikato Hospital in a moderate condition before midnight.
Damage to Robin Wyber's Clarkin Road unit. Photo / Supplied
The driver of the vehicle that hit Wyber's house was detained and breath-tested by police.
Meanwhile, Houghton told the Herald the crash had brought all the horrible memories of last year's crash flooding back.
"It brings it all back. I just feel a bit wet behind the eye."
Asked how he was feeling, he said he wouldn't be driving anywhere today.
"I have had a heart valve implantation on December 1 last year and that played up a bit. I've had some niggles of angina [this morning]."
In May 2016, a driver crashed into the neighbouring Clarkin Rd house when fleeing police in a stolen vehicle near the same roundabout. Photo / Belinda Feek
Houghton's daughter, Niki, also turned up at the scene to check on her father.
She was annoyed that Hamilton City Council hadn't done more to protect the homes since installing the roundabout a couple of years ago.
In the past year, Wyber has had a car crash into her fence - which was just repaired two weeks ago - and Houghton has also had a car crash into his house, his letterbox got taken out in another crash and now his fence has been hit again.
Niki Houghton said she felt the council didn't want to help.
"I just want him to feel safe and secure and it just seems that nobody [at council] is really interested, because if you're elderly you don't really have any power."
She said she would talk with her father about options to move out but there would be a significant cost involved.
"You shouldn't have to feel unsafe in your own home. It's not like people are coming to hurt you, it's like the council are ignoring the fact there's something wrong with the road," Niki Houghton said.
Gary Houghton said he and his wife brought their home "because we could sit here and watch the world go by".
However, it appeared since the installation of the roundabout, the world kept landing at his front door.
Hamilton City Council's general manager of infrastructure Chris Allen said given there has now been two crashes at the same spot, resulting in cars crashing into homes, council staff will visit the scene either Monday or Tuesday and talk with residents about what can be done.
Allen said he couldn't comment on the circumstances of the crash as that was being dealt with by police who staff will meet tomorrow and discuss whether there were any road safety measures they could invoke.
"Nevertheless it appears that this crash is again the result of antisocial behaviour and excessive speed. It's really disappointing when that happens."
Allen said if there is anything practical they can do, they would do it. However, now that it's happened twice the council needed to give it more attention but he doubted the roundabout was at fault.
"I think when you start getting patterns that's when you've got to really stand up and take notice. A one-off is ok but when it happens more than once we look at it a heck of a lot more closely.
"[But] I really don't think that the roundabout is the problem here in this case."
As for residents being on edge, Allen said they shouldn't have to be.
"I don't think you have to be elderly to be nervous. If it's happened once it could happen again, but you shouldn't expect to have a car crash into your house."
The council had visited the scene after previous crashes which had resulted in minor alterations being made, which included new signage.
