The Ford ute crashed into the lounge room of the Endeavour Hills home about 4.30am on Sunday. By Rebecca Fraser
AN Endeavour Hills family say they are living in fear after a car crashed into their lounge room early on Sunday morning.
Lal Karunanayake said his family had been left traumatised after the Ford utility crashed into a four-wheel-drive parked in his driveway and then ploughed into a lounge room wall about 4.30am.
Mr Karunanayake, his wife, Thilane, and their son and daughter-in-law were asleep inside their Kennington Park Drive home at the time.
The collision brought down beams and scattered debris.
The damage bill is expected to exceed $100,000.
The unwanted intrusion was the last straw for the family, which has endured a series of collisions in recent years, with high-speed drivers crashing into their letterbox and fences and tearing up their front lawn.
Last year, Mr Karunanayake wrote to the City of Casey Council urging it to install roundabouts or speed humps along the busy stretch of road to slow speeding motorists.
In the letter to council, the retired chartered accountant said his family was in “mortal fear” of walking on their front lawn, gardening or taking the rubbish bins out for collection.
He called on the council to take immediate action before something more serious happened.
In desperation, he said he was appealing to the council to protect the residents of Kennington Park Drive.
Mr Karunanayake said he thought it was a thunderbolt when the car ploughed into his home.
His son and daughter-in-law were sleeping in a room adjoining the lounge, and a beam crashed into the wall of their room narrowly missing their bed.
The couple has now moved to a room at the back of the house and said they were having trouble sleeping.
“After a few seconds my son came in and said there’s a car in the lounge room. It was like a bomb,” Mr Karunanayake said.
He said drivers needed to be more responsible for their actions and they had been greatly inconvenienced by the incident.
Mr Karunanayake said antique furniture was ruined during the collision and the Toyota Landcruiser was now undriveable.
The Hallam Fire Brigade and the Dandenong Rescue Crew attended.
The driver of the Ford utility, a 21-year-old man from Endeavour Hills, will be charged by summons with conduct endangering person, refusing a preliminary breath test, driving under the influence, failing to remain at the scene, failing to give name and address and other traffic offences.
Casey communications manager Ros Britz said, as part of a municipal-wide program, council was reviewing priorities for streets where residents had requested traffic management.
“This includes the Kennington Park Drive area,” she said.
“However, it is important to appreciate that until the police investigation is complete it is difficult to determine whether in fact a traffic treatment would have stopped this accident from occurring.
Ms Britz said it was premature to make any further comment until the police had completed their investigation of the incident.
