A LORRY crashed through a garden wall in Thornbury, leaving a trail of destruction this week.

It hit another lorry and three parked cars before ploughing through a boundary wall on the corner of Midland Way and Hopkins Close.

Police, fire and ambulance crews were called to the accident, which happened at around 8.10am on Monday morning.

Midland Way was closed for nearly eight hours.

South West Ambulance Service helped to free a man who was trapped in a lorry, and gave another male casualty oxygen.

Homeowner of the damaged property, Jeff Pearce was enjoying a relaxing weekend away from home at the time of the crash.

He said: “My son phoned to tell me about it, and I thought it was probably wouldn’t be too bad.

“I drove straight back home, only to find a lorry in our garden.

"It was a massive 50 tonner, and it had come all the way through our garden.

“It was surreal coming home to that, but it could have been a lot worse. None of the family was in, which was really lucky.

“The boundary wall on Hopkins Close and Midland Way has been destroyed. There’s some damage to the corner of the house. Some iron railings, the rockery, the hedge, the bushes, a ramp, the path, the paving have all been destroyed too.

“My daughter’s car has been written off, and the back of my wife’s car has been damaged by a flying brick.”

Mr Pearce believes that Midland Way would be safer if parking was not permitted along it.

“There have been long standing issues on this road. There are lorries going up and down there at decent speeds, to Thornbury industrial estate.

“It is simply is not wide enough to accommodate both lorries and parked cars. There should be double yellow lines all the way down it,” he said.

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesman said: “No waiting restriction schemes are currently planned for this location.

“Due to the lengthy legal and consultation process that a waiting restrictions scheme entails, any such request is assessed as to how many other requests we have received for that location.

"This is in order to maximise the limited funding and resources that we have available in order to carry out an area-wide waiting restriction review. To date we have not received any other requests for waiting restrictions in this area that would justify such a review at present.

“If there was speeding involved, this remains a matter for the Police to assess and enforce. The Police can also take action regarding any parking that obstructs the highway.

“There have been no personal injury accidents (PIAs) reported within the past five years at this location.”