Shock as car smashes through wall of Craigentinny home

AN elderly couple have called for further road safety measures to be installed outside their home after a third car ploughed through their garden wall since they bought the house.
Martin and Muriel Aird got the shock of their lives when a red Audi car crashed into their gardenMartin and Muriel Aird got the shock of their lives when a red Audi car crashed into their garden
Martin and Muriel Aird got the shock of their lives when a red Audi car crashed into their garden

Muriel Aird, 80, and husband Martin, 82, told how they woke in the early hours of the morning to find a red Audi had smashed through the stone barricade of their Craigentinny home - stopping just metres from their living room.

However, retired lecturer Muriel revealed it was the third time the couple had experienced a lucky escape since moving in more than 35 years ago. She now wants road chiefs to do more to protect the property, with just a single bollard separating cars from the pavement outside the house, but claimed council bosses told her “someone would have to die first,” after the second incident in 1984.

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But Muriel admits she fears the incident repeating itself again if no extra safety plans are put in place.

Martin and Muriel Aird got the shock of their lives when a red Audi car crashed into their gardenMartin and Muriel Aird got the shock of their lives when a red Audi car crashed into their garden
Martin and Muriel Aird got the shock of their lives when a red Audi car crashed into their garden

And while no one was hurt in last night’s crash, Muriel said the couple were taking “a risk” by continuing to live in the house, with Martin suffering from spinal paralysis.

She said: “It’s like a speedway track out there most days, even with the 20 mile per hour limit, nobody is driving at that speed, they all go haring past.”

“There was just this almighty crash and then all these blue flashing lights, the police were there very quickly, but the wall outside has just been totally destroyed.

“It’s a miracle that the driver wasn’t hurt, or some of the stonework didn’t come through the window because there is just debris everywhere.”

She added: “Of course, living here, there is always the risk that something like this could happen again.”

Shortly after moving into the house in 1981, the couple were lucky to avoid a car crashing through their front room when the vehicle - which had four passengers inside - mounted the kerb and careered into the property.

Three years later, an NHS worker driving a blood transfusion van swerved on the road outside and smashed through the wall.

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Two weeks ago, the Evening News revealed the ‘death formula’ used by council chiefs to determine the need for road safety controls to be implemented.

Road bosses employ a ‘three-strike’ system whereby three fatal accidents must happen on a stretch of road within a three-year period on a one-kilometre stretch for speed cameras to be installed.

Transport Convener Councillor Lesley Macinnes said: “First of all I’d like to offer my sympathies to Mr and Mrs Aird as this must have been a very distressing incident for them.”

“The speed limit at this location was reduced to 20mph in 2017. Our officers will be investigating other road safety measures at the junction to influence driver behaviour.”