A Canterbury couple woke up to a car crashing into their house early on Saturday morning.
Sue-ann and Llewellyn Venter, originally from South Africa, were in bed in their Rolleston home when a car crashed through their bedroom wall and landed on top of Sue-ann around 3:30am.
“About 10 minutes before all this happened, I stood up to go to the bathroom,” Llewellyn told The Breeze’s Sarah van der Kley.
“Just as I got all cosy I heard this noise like thunder, just building up and building up and then bang, just a massive crash.”
“ And then everything was just on top of us. Our doors, the curtains, everything, just pressure, all the bricks,” he recalled.
“About three times I shouted for her [Sue-ann]. I only saw her leg sticking out underneath the car.”
“I didn’t hear anything. I just heard my husband screaming and I felt the pressure,” Sue-ann remembered.
“I think that’s where I snapped and I just went into a survival mode,” said Lllewellyn.
“It's just playing over in my head, you know, she could have been gone.”
Llewellyn was able to pull Sue-ann out, and two St John ambulances were called to the scene. Paramedics assessed Sue-ann and took her to hospital.
Somehow, any serious injury was completely avoided.
“Just bumps and bruises, that’s all we came out with,” said Llewellyn.
“There’s a 50 metre skid mark across the reserve before he hits the fence” a neighbour told Chris Lynch Media.
Sue-ann, Llewellyn and their two children are staying with friends while they look for a new rental as their home is unable to be occupied at the moment.
