A WOMAN told today how she fled her home in horror as a car careered out of control and narrowly missed crashing into it.

Tina Jackson said she was standing at her kitchen sink when she saw the Mercedes car, as it demolished a concrete bollard, clipped a car travelling along the road, crashed through her garden wall and stopped just feet short of her house in St Benedict Road, York.

She said: "It was a bit of a shock actually. It was about lunchtime yesterday and I was busy in the kitchen and my husband, Mick, was in the chair when I just heard a noise that made me look up.

"All I saw was this car coming towards the kitchen window and I just ran. It was a real shock as you can imagine."

The couple rushed outside to help two women who had been in the silver Mercedes.

Mrs Jackson said: "Apart from being a bit shaken up they seemed to be fine. It's very fortunate that nobody was hurt. We gave the elderly lady, who was in the car, a cup of tea."

The car was only stopped from smashing into the couple's kitchen by the corner of the neighbour's house, which juts out next to it.

Mrs Jackson added that the incident could have been much worse as elderly people living at nearby council-run Barstow House regularly use the street and could have been walking by when the car ran out of control.

The street is normally lined with parked cars which would have stopped the car much further away from the house but none were there at the time of the incident.

A York police spokesman today confirmed the details of the crash, saying a Mercedes car had lost control and hit a house in St Benedict Road.

The spokesman said all those involved were fortunate to have emerged unscathed from the incident.

"They have obviously had a lucky escape and it could have been a lot worse," he said.

The identities of those in the car are not yet known.

Updated: 11:36 Friday, December 28, 2001