'˜They say lightning doesn't strike twice but it has': Family recovering after car crashes into Hemel Hempstead home for second time

The Tunstalls were enjoying a quiet night in at their Cattsdell home in Hemel Hempstead when the accident happened.

Dad Richard, 36, had only just left the kitchen to join his wife Becky, 37, in the front room when a car lost control driving down the hill and careered into their home.

A brick hit Richard in the chest and the impact was enough to knock his daughter Jazmine, 14, off her feet. She was upstairs with her brother Marcus, 11, when the car smashed through the wall.

“It was like an explosion,” Becky said. “I could see the wall crumbling and everything was moving in slow-motion.

“You had to take it all in and then we ran for our lives. I was worried about the house falling down.

“It was a bit like a Marvel comic with the bricks crumbling in front of you. We could have died.”

Miraculously, there were no injuries either in the car or in the house and the police are still investigating what happened.

Three fire crews, five police cars and ambulances rushed to the scene, causing chaos in the street at 9pm on October 28.

Becky said the trauma has affected Jazmine and Marcus because they missed days off school and have had to leave friends behind to move out of the house.

After the crash, the family discovered a 16-year-old girl died in a similar smash in 2002.

The car she was travelling in hit the same spot and she could not be saved.

Becky has written to Hemel MP Mike Penning. She wants to see the introduction of traffic calming, give-way signs or speed bumps to slow cars down.

The family want something done to ensure others don’t have to go through the same ‘terrible’ ordeal.

“They say lightning doesn’t strike twice but it has,” Becky said. “It’s changed our lives and we’re not going back.”