AN Upper Woodford couple had a nasty shock on Monday when a car smashed into their living room wall as they watched television.

John and Georgina Hutchings, who live at Crockers Cottage with their four-year-old triplets, were enjoying ITV show Downton Abbey when the red Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 failed to stop at the junction opposite their home.

“We heard a car approaching over the bridge,” said Mrs Hutchings: “It crashed into our two cars first then the house. The noise was so loud. I just sat there in shock then rang the emergency services while John went outside.”

Mr Hutchings, 45, a policeman who was due to start a shift at 10pm, ran to help the three men in the car. He said: “I couldn’t get to them at first as the wall had collapsed onto the gate so I had to nearly wrench it off its hinges. When I got to the car, it was full of airbag smoke.”

The emergency services arrived and closed the road while the men, all in their early 20s, were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they were treated for serious but not life-threatening injuries.

Mrs Hutchings, 41, who works at Lloyds Bank in Salisbury, said: “There was a horrible smell - all the chemicals and the smoke. The bin was smashed and there was rubbish everywhere, it was all just a mess.”

Mr and Mrs Hutchings’ children, Isabella, Oliver and Harriet, who have just started school, slept through the commotion but Mr Hutchings stayed up until the early hours of Tuesday morning to help with the investigation.

The road was closed until 3am whilethe scene was examined and Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service attended to make the house safe.

Most of the impact of the crash was absorbed by the Hutchings’ two cars, a Volkswagen Sharan and a Nissan Micra.

“We’ve managed to borrow my mother-in-law’s car to take the children to school as both our cars were written off but we’ve also lost the child seats as they were built in,” said Mrs Hutchings.

“It’s annoying having to get everything organised but it really doesn’t matter about material things; the children are ok and we’re ok so I’m not going to feel too sorry for myself,” she added.

The couple will not find out the full extent of the damage to their house until a surveyor has assessed it but Mrs Hutchings said: “Cracks have appeared all over the house. Hopefully, it’s just cracks in the plaster.”

Mr Hutchings said: “We were lucky. If there had been two metres difference it doesn’t take much imagination to think what would have happened to us.”

“The worst thing about it was we didn’t get to see the end of Downton Abbey,” he joked.

Witnesses or anyone who saw the car prior to the crash are asked to contact the Serious Collision Investigation Team at Chippenham Police Station on 101.