Car hits house

From the BBC:

A couple who were self-isolating have had to leave their home after a car crashed into it.

Robin Deane, 74, said he and his wife Carol, 66, were in the upstairs bedroom when the crash happened on Wednesday night, in a street in the Cashes Green area of Stroud.

He said it sounded "like a bomb had gone off" downstairs...

A classic "Car Hits House" story

From the BBC:

An elderly woman has reversed a car through the front door of a house. She wedged the vehicle into the front of the property in a village near Devizes in Wiltshire on Tuesday morning.

Firefighters took two hours to rescue her and got her out from the back of the car. She was treated at the scene by the South Western Ambulance Service. A spokesman for Devizes Fire Station said it had been "tricky" to free the trapped driver. 

A building control officer had been requested to check the building.

Most of these are tragic and/or scary (where third parties are involved), this one has some comedic value and no third parties were affected.

Another one of those "vehicle hits house" stories

From The Daily Mail:

A couple had a lucky escape when a van ploughed into the front of their thatched cottage. Val and Steve Fossey were about go to bed when they found the white van embedded in the front of their 16th century listed cottage in Bedfordshire.

The vehicle had careered round a bend before crossing a grass verge, going through a hedge and ploughing into their home. A 34-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of being unable to drive through drink or drugs and is in police custody.

1. This happens far more often than you think. Top tip - don't live on the outside of a bend or at the end of a T-junction or cul-de-sac.

2. On a philosophical level, is it really a 16th century cottage? It's clearly in the 21st century. In the 16th century, no cottage was ever struck by a motor vehicle.

3. Sadly, the Mail does not tell us the cottage's potential selling price.

The ten-to-one ratio between overall market transactions and private housebuilding starts.

Via Peter Smith on FB, some research by Neal Hudson:

The level of private house building is closely linked to credit availability and turnover in the wider housing market. There has been a 10 to 1 ratio between overall market transactions and private house building starts for the last 25 years and it appears to have held firm despite recent policy interventions. The reasons for this ratio are poorly understood...

He then includes a chart showing that the ten-to-one ratio has held firm for a lot longer than that.

Fascinating.

I can understand that there would be some sort of correlation between the two, but not as striking as that...

UPDATE: Peter S explains why in the comments. Doh! Wish I'd thought of that.

Another "car attacks house" story

From the BBC:

"I heard lots of revving and then the car must have just shot out of her driveway opposite, across the road, through my parents' brick wall and into the kitchen."

It is believed the car, an automatic, began revving uncontrollably. The woman tried to put it in park, but that meant going through reverse gear. The car then accelerated backwards.

The accident destroyed the room, which had been newly-renovated in December, as well as hitting the gas and water supplies. Emergency services and gas engineers spent four hours making sure the area was safe.

Car attacks house, today's episode

From The Daily Mail:

A 28-year-old woman has described the terrifying moment a speeding car fleeing police officers ploughed into her house as she slept.

She was in bed at her semi-detached property in Leeds, West Yorkshire, when the BMW skipped over a grass verge and smashed into her front room at 2am yesterday.

Three-bed semi detached houses like that in Leeds sell for anything between £90,000 and £300,000, it all depends on exactly which part of Leeds (sadly not stated in the article).

The Daily Mail doesn't usually mention the house price if it's in a low-value area, so we'll have to assume more towards the £90,000 end. Or less, if the downstairs bay window is all smashed in.

My tip: don't buy a house at the top of a T-junction.

Man wrestles runaway tractor to a halt; bull attacks house

Two of my favourite themes cropped up again today:

Emailed in by Paul H, from The Telegraph:

Amateur video shows a runaway tractor, which had escaped from a farming equipment exhibition in Malaga, charging at a car before setting its sights on a pedestrian.

The man, who is wearing a red shirt, just has time to square up to the stampeding vehicle as onlookers shout out in warning. Incredibly, he manages to avoid being caught by the tractor's wheels and, grabbing it around the steering wheel, wrestles it to a halt.

Witnesses then rush to the man's aid and help keep the tractor still while its ignition key is removed.

From The Daily Mail:

A young bull ploughed into the back of a family home - feet from where a 16-year-old girl was stood [sic].

Bexi Hebbourn was seconds away from being hit when the escaped animal careered through the back wall as she took washing to an outhouse. It brought down tonnes of masonry and brickwork at the exact spot the teenager was about to enter...

Neighbours described the moment of impact as like 'an earthquake'. The accident happened on Old Hall Road in Ulverston on a route often used by farm workers to drive cattle to and from the town.