A motorist was in hospital last night with serious head injuries after the car he was driving careered off the road and crashed into two homes in Brandon.

By EMMA KNIGHTS

A motorist was in hospital last night with serious head injuries after the car he was driving careered off the road and crashed into two homes.

The vehicle hit the corner of a little boy's bedroom in one bungalow before driving into the wall of the second.

The silver Vauxhall Astra, in which three men were travelling, had been driving along the Thetford Road, close to The Paddocks junction, in Brandon, when the car spun out of control at about 10.20am.

One of the homeowners spoke of her shock at discovering a car lodged in the front of her house.

"I was in the kitchen when I heard a loud bang, and I knew straight away that something had driven into the house," said Linda Dorantes, who lives with her son, Scott Townshend.

"Our neighbours are also very shaken up - their little boy sleeps in the room where the car hit."

Mrs Dorantes added: "I saw a car in the garden, which was very badly damaged. There were three boys who had been in the car, and one of them had serious injuries to his face. I got a towel and tried to help him whilst my son called for an ambulance, but he was in a really bad way and obviously in a lot of pain."

The car also flattened a number of large conifer trees that separated the two properties.

"I cannot explain how I feel, and I think I am still in shock," said Mrs Dorantes, who has lived in Thetford Road for the past 10 years.

"There are cracks in the ceilings all through the house, so we are now waiting for the insurance company to come out so we can find out what the damage is. It is not very nice to see your house in such a mess, and it just looks as though a bomb has hit the garden."

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: "One patient, who was in his 30s, had serious, but not life-threatening, facial and head injuries. He was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital. The other people in the car did not have medical treatment."

A spokeswoman for Forest Heath District Council said building control officers were sent to the scene to make sure the buildings were safe.

"The car had embedded itself into one of the bungalows and we had to advise the emergency services how to extricate the car. The buildings are now safe to be occupied," she said.

Suffolk police said no arrests were being made as a result of the incident.

Three fire crews from Thetford and Brandon attended the scene.