Woman 'shouted to her fella' after noise woke her up at 2.30am
A woman leapt out of bed and shouted “it’s our bloody wall,” after finding a car had smashed through into her garden. Jan Broadfoot was in bed just after 2.30am on Saturday morning at her home on West Derby Road when she was woken up by the sound of a car ploughing into her garden wall.Speaking to the ECHO, Jan said she was thankful the car hadn’t hit a lamppost directly outside the home she shares with her husband in Tuebrook, as it would have smashed straight into their bedroom. It was the first of two crashes at the weekend, with two cars colliding later that afternoon.Merseyside Police have since confirmed a man has been charged with drink driving following the early morning smash. He will appear in court in May.Jan, who has lived in her grade II listed home for more than 30 years, told the ECHO how the crash sounded “like a normal one."She said: “We have them here all the time, normally about one or two a week… It drove right into my garden…“I shouted to my fella, ‘it’s our bloody wall.’ It’s a good job it didn’t hit the lamppost; it would have come straight through the house into our bedroom. We wouldn’t be standing here now if it had.As the ECHO visited Jan, bits of windscreen glass and plastic from the bumper of the car remained strewn all over her path.She added: “I just started laughing speaking to the copper because I didn’t know what else to do. What else can you do?“I always get up and have a look because it could be a really bad one. My husband could see the man still in the car, so he got up, and I followed him.“The police were here until 4am, I couldn’t go back to bed after that. This was just another thing on top of everything else I’ve had going on.”Jan said the junction has become an increasing concern for people living along West Derby Road where it joins with Muirhead Avenue and the number of collisions occurring. She said: “My husband’s nearly been knocked off his bike when he’s been coming out of the entry.“I’ve seen cars turn over, and people have to be cut out. They really need to put traffic lights up.” Jan told the ECHO how, just over 12 hours later, another crash happened near her front door as two cars collided at around 3.30pm.Merseyside Police confirmed they were called to the scene at 2.35am on February 7 after a Volkswagen car collided with the front wall of the property. Anthony Moore, 46, of Longreach Road, Dovecot, has been charged with driving a motor vehicle with an alcohol concentration above the limit and was bailed to appear in court on May 29.Liverpool Council is the local highway authority for managing licensing for all public roads, footways and footpaths in the city. A series of replacement railings have been installed from previous crashes while plastic, temporary measures flanked by traffic cones were in place outside Jan’s home.Jan’s neighbour, Tina Purcell, heard the crash and has had her own railings damaged by previous incidents. She said: “That’s the worst one we’ve had.“I’ve been here for 40 years, and it’s all the time now; the beeping never stops. Since the road markings went in, it’s actually got worse. One day when I was doing the garden, I saw three, one after the other.“There needs to be a stop sign. There are so many kids around here from West Derby School and St Cecilia’s; if that had happened during the day, something would have been done.”Cllr Steve Radford, who represents the Stoneycroft ward, said he and his colleague, Cllr Billy Lake, were “deeply frustrated” that a “bad situation has become worse.” He added: “If you come out of Green Lane, three lanes merge into two, which just causes confusion.“If you don’t live in the city, nobody dreams of stopping to give way on a roundabout. You get lots who are not local who just pull out without realising. It’s a recipe for collisions.”Cllr Radford said he and colleagues in Tuebrook were lobbying Liverpool Council for the addition of traffic lights and a pedestrian crossing to manage the flow of traffic.A Liverpool Council spokesperson said: “We can confirm we were called in the early hours of Saturday morning to West Derbv Road following a road traffic collision which damaged railings. A temporary repair was made and new railings will be ordered and installed.”
