By Mikayla van Loon
A car crashed through the side of a house in Lilydale on Wednesday morning, with the driver and resident both making it out safely.
Emergency services responded to the rescue on the corner of Kidgell Street and Albert Hill Road around 8.15am on 6 December.
The driver, a man in his 80s, “was taken to Maroondah Hospital in a stable condition with an upper body injury”, Ambulance Victoria confirmed.
Likening the sound to an earthquake, the house’s resident Aaron opened his bedroom door to a plume of dust from the rubble caused by the collision.
The white sedan was said to have somewhat rolled down Albert Hill Road into the brick house, after crashing through the fence.
Owner of the house Garth Perkins said he received a call from his son Aaron just after 8am.
“Aaron rang me at quarter past eight, usually if he rings me at that time I know something’s wrong,” he said.
“He just said ‘a car has crashed into the house, can you come?’”
Working in the city, Garth travelled close to an hour to get back to Lilydale.
On arrival, Garth thought the car had just damaged the fence but realised soon after the sliding glass doors from the kitchen were demolished.
Hitting the section of house where the kitchen, laundry and bathroom line the back section of the house, with a patio and pergola, Aaron was lucky the bedroom where he was still in bed was unaffected.
Having only moved in 12 months ago and just replacing the sliding doors, it was a shock to find it smashed but Aaron and Garth were glad the driver wasn’t seriously injured.
Lilydale CFA extricated the driver from the vehicle for him to be transported to hospital via road ambulance. Lilydale SES then secured the structure with support beams.
Workers from Yarra Ranges Council also made an assessment of the damage.
